PlayStation All-Stars Season Three
by Coleiosis
Summary: The third season of the longest-running PSASBR fanfiction series. Ratchet is about to meet his fate as he battles the forces of evil and travels through time.
1. Ratchet's Ultimate Fate

Coleiosis presents the longest-running PlayStation All-Stars series!

PlayStation All-Stars: Ratchet's Ultimate Fate

By Cole Bezotte

**CELEBRATING COLEIOSIS' 50****TH**** FANFICTION STORY!**

Chapter One: A Terrible Nightmare

One night, as Sasha Phyronix lied in bed, her tired body rested, but her mind was completely out of control. She began to dream of something that was very impossible to think of. Her eyes twitched as heavy tears rolled down her cringing face. Her dream was one that she never wished for: Ratchet finally turning against her.

In the dream, Ratchet faced his girlfriend and stalked towards her, looking very grim and deadly. Sasha tried to back away from the boy whom she knew as her true love. But she could not back away any further; something was stopping her like an invisible wall touching her back. She could not go any further; Ratchet came closer and closer until he finally reached the point where he could touch her.

Then, Ratchet did the impossible: he started to grab Sasha by the neck, and he squeezed her really hard. Sasha tried to plead Ratchet to stop his insane madness: "Ratchet… please!" But Ratchet did not listen; he kept on choking her, putting a heavy pain in her neck. Sasha looked into Ratchet's eyes, once green and shining with hope, now red with a burning fiery hatred. Sasha also thought that she heard an evil clown laugh in the background.

Right when it looked like Ratchet was going to finish Sasha once and for all, she woke up suddenly, her eyes filled with the fear of her nightmare coming back to haunt her. But things soon got better that night; she felt a soft and gentle hand stroke her weeping face. She looked up to see that Ratchet had come to her aid when he heard her shriek in fear. "You're okay," she heard Ratchet speak as he stood at the side of her bed. "I'm here with you. No need to worry. I'm here for you."

Sasha did not say anything at first. Ratchet spoke up again: "What happened? Is it a dream? Tell me. I'll understand."

Sasha tried her best to reply bravely: "It was horrible," she said. "Somehow, I felt as if…" She stopped, not wanting to say the last part.

"As if what?" Ratchet asked. "I'll understand if you tell me."

"…As if…" Sasha continued. "I had finally lost you."

"Lost me? Sasha, I would never leave you. You still have me, Sasha. You still have me as the love of your dreams. I still love you, Sasha. Throughout the rest of the years of my life, you will always be my girl. I'll always have you. Always remember that."

The couple embraced each other in a warming hug, assuring each other that they would never leave each other. What a heavy moment it was for Sasha to feel as if she had finally lost the boy of her dreams.

Chapter Two: Breakout

The next morning, in one of the cells of Commander Mason's jail building, the evil Needles paced back and forth, facing the floor as he thought of a new idea for a diabolical plan. Alongside with him were all the other villains such as Mr. Ash, Minion, Black, Club Kid, Evil Cole MacGrath, Colonel Mael Radec, Gigadis, Mr. Grimm, and Yoshimitsu. After seeing Needles walk back and forth like that, everybody became very annoyed at his habit.

"Will you cut that out?!" Mr. Ash spoke up angrily. "You're annoying the crap out of us!"

"Well," Needles replied as he stopped his pacing. "We're all in luck. Gentlemen, I have just devised the greatest scheme I ever thought up! I can still control my ice cream truck while I'm not piloting it. I can control it by mental command, sending my thought waves to the head on the top. I'll allow the controls to maneuver themselves using automatic driving. All I need do is send a thought wave to it, and it will drive all the way over here to free us."

"Don't get our hopes up too high, Needles. Can you assure us that it will happen?"

"Of course!" Needles said as he stood in a certain stance towards the wall of their cell. "It is something that can never fail! I command my ice cream truck to burst through the wall of this cell!" With one thought command reaching out to his ice cream truck, he was able to lure the vehicle to drive to the jail building. And also, with another command, Needles told the truck to fire a Napalm Cone at the wall to break it down. It was a complete success, and the ten captive villains were now free.

As Mr. Ash saw how successful Needles was, his mind was changed about his stupidity. "I must say," he said after seeing what happened, "that is a very excellent idea! I should have done that with my semi-truck Darkside! Anyway, let's get out of here!"

"Take my truck, all of you!" Needles said to all the villains. "There's plenty of room for you. And as for me, I'll go steal one of those police cars." He gave the villains the keys to his truck, then he took off to the jail's parking lot. He ran as fast as his slim legs could carry him, far across his destination. He finally came upon Carl Roberts' car, Outlaw, and hopped in to start the ignition and take off. "What a fool Carl is," he thought to himself as he quickly drove out of the area. "He left the keys in this car, so it is very easy for me to make my escape! This vehicle already serves me well!" He laughed evilly as he started to drive down the streets of Los Angeles.

He later came across a local bank, where he quickly got out of the police car and ran right into the building to steal money. Once he got inside, a fat police officer spotted him out and started to shout at him: "You! In that outfit! What do you want?!"

Needles smiled as he replied: "Money, my dear fellow! Money! Cold cash!"

The officer motioned to a couple of other policemen as he said: "That guy is as nutty as a fruitcake! Get him!"

"Go ahead and fire!" Needles said as he pulled two Napalm Cones out of his pocket. "It will do you no good!" As the policemen fired their guns, Needles began to throw Napalm Cones in the exact direction as the guns' bullets, burning them away with the powerful flame. "Now I want you to freeze!" he continued as he started to fire Freeze Blasts at the officers. It froze their bodies so that they could no longer move. "Now that I have you all under ice, it's time for me to empty the vault!"

After collecting about four thousand dollars from the bank's vault, he went back outside only to find two other security officers waiting for him. "Hold it there, buddy!" they exclaimed as they pointed their guns at him. "Freeze!"

Needles laughed at what they said as he shot two more Freeze Blasts at them. "You got the right idea, pal! Although, it is YOU who shall freeze!" He encased the officers in a giant cube of ice as he hopped back into the Outlaw.

Later on, as he drove along the road, an awful, evil idea struck his head. "I know just what to do," he thought to himself. "And now, Pupuru, it's time for you to pay the piper!"

But, along the way, he looked out his window and saw the Lombax known as Angela Cross, standing out on the sidewalk. "What a stroke of luck for me," Needles thought as he came closer to Angela. Angela looked and saw what Needles was doing as she was about to pull out her gun. "You won't have a chance to pull out that gun," Needles spoke to her as he activated the car's Omnitaser. "I've got a weapon up my sleeve!" With that, the Omnitaser fired and zapped Angela right on her head. It was such a powerful shock to her as she suddenly fell to the ground, with her mind and sight blacking out. She fell, becoming unconscious as she saw Needles drive away, until everything became dark and she blacked out.

Chapter Three: The Master Plan of Needles

About an hour later, Angela found herself in the local hospital, lying on a patient's bed. Once she opened her eyes, it took her about ten seconds to realize that her eyesight had gone completely wrong. "What's going on?" she began to ask herself. "Why does everything look different?"

While lying on that bed, she saw Clank standing on a stool and reading a graph that displayed on a miniature television screen. The graph showed the weakness in Angela's eyesight, as a result of the Omnitaser that struck her. "Oh no," Clank spoke up as he read the rest of the graph. "Something is not right! There is a terrible change in her eyesight! It could be…"

Clank did not finish his sentence at first, leaving Angela very anxious to hear the results. Clank turned and blurted out the conclusion: "Color-blind! I wonder how your vision would be like when color-blind."

Angela's heart leaped as she heard this shocking news. She could already see things in black-and-white, no longer in color, confusing herself with which-is-what. "I can't seem to recognize anything anymore," she stuttered. "How am I going to see to anyone?"

"Calm down now," Clank replied. "I'm sure that you will recognize most of what you truly know."

Ratchet came into the room, seeing Angela lie there on her cot. He saw how she was about to come to tears about this experience. "I'm sorry, Angela," Ratchet spoke up as he fully approached her. "There's nothing I can do."

"That's alright, Ratchet," Angela replied, with her fingers to her eyes welling with tears. "But I can't see you color anymore, as well as everything else!"

"It's okay, Angela. Just calm down. You'll be able to tell one thing from another, with just a little practice. Perhaps Pupuru could understand… if we'll see her again that is."

"I understand you, Ratchet. I know what to do."

As this moment went on, Needles watched through the window the result of his Omnitaser attack. "Never again would I have such a golden opportunity to destroy my enemy!" he thought aloud as he eavesdropped on what was going on. "Let's see if this girl can recognize anything now. Time for me to arrive at the Underworld and get my truck back, then make my next move."

Later, Needles made it to the Underworld to unite with the other villains that drove his ice cream truck there. Once he arrived, he demanded his truck's keys back, then made the following announcement for a new diabolical scheme that he had just devised. "All of you drive your vehicles and follow me!" he demanded, loud enough for everyone to hear. "We are heading to the one town that deserves no mercy! That little girl Pupuru should be the easiest to destroy! What an amazing kill it will be for me!"

And so, the hunt was on, as the villains hopped into their vehicles to drive into Pupuru's homeland. Needles pulled out his old invention, the portal gun, and shot a hole in the wall, creating a warp zone that led to Pupuru's home. "This ought to do it," Needles said as he hopped into his ice cream truck. "Let's go!" With that, he drove through the portal, along with the other villains driving their vehicles.

Chapter Four: Dark Past

That same day that Needles started the invasion on Pupuru's homeland, Ratchet went on wandering the streets of Los Angeles until he came upon a big crowd that surrounded something. He went over to see the commotion, then saw that on the wall of a building was a message written in graffiti paint. The message read:

"Dearest people of Earth,

I am sorry to say that perhaps we are all at our end. Too much conflict in every single place I see makes a dead giveaway, giving the hint that it is all my fault. I am responsible for all this chaos, destruction, and death, all because of a devilish competition I had regretted inventing years ago. Because of my Twisted Metal competition, the entire universe is bathed in danger, threatening children to perish and loved ones to bleed. This competition, my vision, is over for good. Perhaps I can think of a way to let it all end. Remember your planet, Ratchet.

Sincerely yours, William Sparks."

Indeed, William Sparks, the man whom was once known as Calypso, had written that message. Ratchet then saw that there was a strange piece of glass leaning on the wall. It was a shard from a glass window, forged at the planet Fastoon, Ratchet's home planet. Ratchet thought that this might have been a ticket to the past that was his darkest time. "Perhaps…" Ratchet thought to himself as he looked closely at the glass shard. "If only I could change things. If only I could go back to my past and change what had been my father's end. If only… Wait a minute! That's it! Maybe, if that magic axe led to the Opposite Dimension, I can probably do the same thing with TIME! But I need to know the secret on how to use the axe."

Later, at the main house, Ratchet found that the axe was still where it was before. He then spun it very fast, creating a warp zone that led to the mysterious Opposite Dimension. Once he arrived there after going through the portal, he thought of an idea. "Certainly, the Charlie Kane here must still be alive. Even though he's the opposite of the real one, I must bribe him."

But, even the opposite Charlie Kane had the exact same kindness as the one we know. As Marcus' father, he was a very gentle elderly man, a one-time Twisted Metal competing has-been. Once Ratchet arrived at Opposite Charlie's house, he asked him about how to use the magic axe by means of time.

"Well son," Opposite Charlie spoke up after hearing Ratchet's problem. "You've come to the right place. My son has used that axe before, so what I think here should work. If that shard came from your planet, all you have to do is tie it around the axe's blade and you've got yourself a ticket."

Ratchet did what he was told; he taped the glass shard onto the axe's blade and waited for further instructions. "Okay," he said when the process was finished. "Then what?"

"You spin it, son," Opposite Charlie replied. "Spin it, along with yourself, and you'll soon be at the past. Although, I'm afraid you might not make it out of there so soon."

"What's that you say? What do you mean?"

"Well, if you want to come back here to the present, you have to have something of value. Something of importance that was created in this present-time. You got me?"

"Loud and clear, Charlie. I understand."

Later, back at the present Los Angeles, at the main house, the words of Opposite Charlie kept on ringing in Ratchet's mind. He was very confused as to what it would be that would be very important to him. He soon came to his senses as he pulled something out of his pocket that immediately grabbed his attention. It was a picture of his girlfriend Sasha Phyronix, whom he had loved for only a short time. "If I am never to see Sasha again," he thought aloud as he stared deep into the picture he held, "it will be such a pity. But I must take my chances!"

Chapter Five: Planets in Ashes

And so, the moment began. With the glass shard stuck to the magic axe's blade, he spun really hard, creating a time warp that soon led him to the dark past, when Fastoon fell. Once he was done spinning, he looked all around him, every surrounding. He found himself in a strange world that he right away recognized. "Do my eyes deceive me?!" he thought aloud. "I really am on Fastoon! This is the past! And yet, there's something going on here!"

He saw that there was firepower blasting everywhere, indicating to him that there was a conflict going on. Then it struck him: "Emperor Percival Tachyon! This was the time when he scourged the planet, destroying most of the Lombaxes that existed. Some others flew into a mysterious dimension, where they could never escape or leave. Only a handful of Lombaxes remained living throughout the galaxy. Ratchet was one of them, and he did not want to surrender to any evil that threatened. Not even the dark Agent Stone would thrash him if our Lombax hero had such courage.

Suddenly, as Ratchet witnessed the battle that occurred, a Lombax war general appeared and gave him the final warning: "You must flee! Tachyon's forces are overcoming us! You must get out of here now!"

But, as bold and brave as he was, Ratchet took something out of his pocket and handed it to the general. It was a tiny piece of paper with a written note on it. "Please understand," he spoke up to him, handing him the note. "Do not force me to destroy anything. I pray that this will be our greatest hour."

The general took the note, now knowing that there is a secret behind all of what Ratchet is thinking. "I must trust you on this one," the general said as he took off, not realizing that whom he spoke to was the present Ratchet.

After seeing the general run off into the battle, a surprising thought struck Ratchet's head: "This could be my chance! I could go and meet my father in person! But I can't go with all these explosions happening around me. Also, time is running out for the Lombaxes. My father would die right when I arrive at wherever he is. And yet… I must go talk to William. He was definitely right about the entire universe coming to an end with all this chaos."

So, Ratchet hopped into a nearby spaceship and took off into the stars, out of the planet.

Meanwhile, back at the present-time, somewhere in Los Angeles, we find William Sparks pulling out something that he had created long ago. It was a cubed box, a machine that would destroy the entire universe and all life. All he had to do was press the main button and it would all come to an end.

But William hesitated. Instead, he just stared blankly at the box, holding himself back from what he should have done long ago. The real Marcus Kane was with him, seeing how William would not just simply press the button and end all life. He shared William's feelings about causing so many things to perish and die unexpectedly. They were very innocent people, and yet their lives were wasted because of the insane Twisted Metal contest.

William had that deep feeling inside of him, knowing that somehow all this chaos would come back and start things over again. He had already lost his wife, sister, and daughter; he did not want to lose anyone else, especially the one who had brought him back to the light: Ratchet.

As for Marcus, he had already lost his family, and now he was all alone. It was his own fault that his family was dead; his wife, daughter, and two sons. But he was eager to thank Ratchet for bringing him back to where he belongs: in the love and goodness that he once had before Needles was formed.

As the two men stared deeply into the box, Ratchet came in, from the past, and noticed the invention that stood on the tiny table. "What is this?" he asked as he approached the two men.

"This, my friend," William replied, "is the thing that would just end it all. I'm tired of all this nonsense that had erupted everywhere I go. Why not end it here and now by blowing everything up? We can just end the conflict by ending everything else."

"Are you sure?" Ratchet said. "We would be destroying the universe instead of saving it."

"It's the only other choice we have. No matter how many times we save our universe, evil will always come and bring everything back into ruin. It's no use now."

"Well, let's see what's going on in the other realms, then we'll say whether or not we should do this deed."

Chapter Six: Hard-Core Heroes

Needles and his villainous mates arrived at the Oboro Forest, eager to put their plan of terror and destruction into action. They first parked to hear some certain secret that Gigadis had been hiding this whole time. "Say Gigadis," Needles spoke up as they parked their vehicles. "You never told us your real intention with Primeval. Perhaps if you could tell us here and now, that would be pretty swell."

"You people are always dumbfounded about stuff like that," Gigadis replied. "It was quite simple. I wanted Primeval to tear down all the buildings of Los Angeles so that I can replace them all with a new kingdom for me and Pupuru. Alas, I saw you and Club Kid already planning a city of your own; so I thought that I could speed up the process of my kingdom by having you two as my slaves. I hypnotized you to build the kingdom along with Primeval, then I kicked Mr. Ash, Minion, and Black out of the Underworld. They wanted to rebel against me, until they saw that war commander Mason coming their way. They knew that he had freed Ratchet from prison, so they attacked him. But he was agile enough to bring Ratchet to the first wall of my new kingdom. I wanted to settle things with Pupuru, but she was too soft in the heart. She said that she would never forgive me for what I've done; shooting Ratchet's girlfriend Sasha and killing her. I tried to reason with Pupuru, but alas she would not listen. I now know that she cannot be trusted if she's going to listen to Ratchet. That no-good Lombax ruined everything between me and Pupuru. Now, all because of Ratchet, she hates me! I'm going to go settle things with him once and for all!"

"Easy, Gigadis," Needles said. "It seems like we both have a score to settle with Ratchet. But let's see if he can appear once we start our invasion. I must say that this will be such a piece of cake! There's no way that anyone can use the same power as our special portal gun. Now let's go kick some hinds!"

With that, he and the rest of the villains got back into their vehicles and drove toward Pupuru's hometown. In case you are confused as to what some of the villains are supposed to drive, here's how it's listed:

-Needles, driving the Sweet Tooth ice cream truck

-Mr. Ash, driving Darkside

-Minion, driving his giant tank

-Black, driving Manslaughter

-Gigadis, driving Roadkill

-Club Kid, driving his Club Kid mini-car

-Evil Cole MacGrath, driving Firestarter

-Colonel Radec, driving Mr. Slam

-Mr. Grimm, driving his motorcycle

-Yoshimitsu, riding on the sidecar of Mr. Grimm's motorcycle

And so, the invasion began. The villains began to pour into the hometown of young Pupuru, as the townspeople watched in horror. Missiles from the vehicles flew everywhere as the people found themselves helpless and at the mercy of this ruthless evil clown. "One side, all of you!" Needles shouted to the people as he zoomed by in his truck. "The ice cream man cometh!"

Soon, in answer to the city's call for help, Angela Cross came to the scene to rescue those who were troubled by this invasion. She directed pedestrians to the nearest buildings, warning them to keep out of the streets. After all was settled outside, Angela headed straight for Pupuru's home, but could not find Pupuru at first. "Where the heck is she?" Angela thought to herself. "She's a good girl; she could take care of herself. But perhaps fear has taken the place."

Suddenly, Angela heard a scream from a near room, and then found Pupuru backing away from Needles, who had broken into the house. "Ah," Needles spoke up as he came closer to Pupuru. "Is that you, little miss Pupuru."

"No!" Pupuru screamed. "Stay away!"

"You were so young," Needles taunted. "Yet you treated me coldly. Well, let me preserve your beauty… under ice!" With that, Needles began to blow a Freeze Blast from the palm of his hand, freezing Pupuru in a state of ice.

But Angela came to the rescue in time, throwing herself in the way of Needles' ice. "Stop!" Angela spoke up as the Freeze Blast affected her as well. "If you want to touch her, you'll have to get through ME!"

"Angela?!" Needles stuttered. "What are you doing here?! I was coming after you later! But now I'm in luck. You are face-to-face with power greater than yours!" Needles began to freeze both Angela and Pupuru with his special chemical, gaining the upper hand against the two girls. Or has he?

Meanwhile, outside into the town, the rest of the villains caused major damage throughout the place. Soon, more villains began to appear and aid the villains in their mission of destruction. There came Specter, Damien Coles (the original driver of Firestarter), Agent Stone, Simon Whittlebone (who mysteriously came back alive again after the fourth warp explosion), and Bruce Cochrane (who was affected by the warp explosion also). "This is getting big," Minion thought to himself. "We ought to call this team the Evil Alliance."

But for every villain came a hero to help defend the city from the bad guys who attacked it. Soon, Spike (Kakeru) came to stop Specter's mad monkeys from chipping bits and pieces off of everything. Even the god Zeus came into the scene, holding more power than anyone in this situation (except for Mr. Ash; he has equal power). The entire League of Heroes (including more) rushed in to save the city from the evil that surrounded. And here we say them all:

-Nathan Drake and Sly Cooper, driving Hammerhead

-Captain Qwark, driving Auger

-Raiden, driving Thumper

-Carl Roberts, Jamie Roberts, Sackboy, and Sackgirl, driving Outlaw

-Cole MacGrath

-Agent Shepard, driving Crimson Fury

-Sasha Phyronix and Agent Angelina X, driving Pit Viper

-Commander Mason, driving Warthog

-Dr. Nefarious and his butler Lawrence

-Kratos, driving Axel's wheels

-Clank

-Sir Daniel Fortesque

-Dart Feld

-Solid Snake, driving Yellow Jacket

-Jak and Daxter

-Kat

-Neptune/Purple Heart/Nepnep

-Preacher, driving Shadow

-PaRappa the rapper

-Kuu

And so on. This was certainly going to be the most challenging battle that the League of Heroes had ever faced. But the team was pretty much a company now; it was expanding by so many other heroes that were willing to fight for freedom.

The battle raged on for about hours now. But a short time after the battle began, something surprising happened. After Kat knocked Minion out cold, she saw that the car Pit Viper was driving right towards her. Inside the car, Sasha motioned Kat to move out of the way; otherwise she would be hit heavily. But Kat had an idea; she ran towards the car and jumped right onto the top of it. She rode on the top of Pit Viper as it zoomed throughout the streets. The vehicle headed for Pupuru's home, exactly where Sasha and Agent Angelina X were going to pull over and park. Once they came to a halt, Kat jumped off the car and ran inside the house to deal with a certain someone, leaving Sasha and Angelina to refill the ammo of the car's weapons.

Inside the house, Needles felt victorious over freezing Angela and Pupuru to death. "Feeling a bit chilly, eh?" he taunted. "This is only the beginning. Here's a little cold-shoulder treatment for you! You have no weapons, so I'm gonna give you a little something."

But, before the freezing process was finished, Kat snuck up from behind Needles and pulled him by the collar of his suit with tails. "Now!" Kat exclaimed as she tossed Needles aside. She tossed Angela something that would defrost all that was frozen in the city. "Just enough heat to melt the ice, girls."

Angela quickly switched on the device that Kat handed her, and began to flash it back and forth slowly. Needles got back up to his feet and picked back up his hat and cane, before seeing what Angela was doing. "You startled me for a minute there," he said. "What do you expect to do with that flashlight?"

"De-ice everything, Needles," Angela replied. "A small adjustment and this light-beam will be a heat-ray." She pointed it at the Sweet Tooth ice cream truck parked outside, melting all the Freeze Blasts and Napalm Cones that were stored in there.

"No!" Needles exclaimed as he watched in horror at his overheating truck. "It's like a furnace! Turn it off! Turn it off!"

"Now you won't be able to use your deadly weapons anymore," Angela said as she heated herself up along with Pupuru, melting the ice that coated them. "Are you alright, Pupuru?" she asked Pupuru once it was all finished.

"I'll be okay," Pupuru replied. "Thanks. Now we can do a real fight here without any more weapons to cheat."

"Don't bet on it, kid!" Needles barked. "I'll still have the upper hand once this city is in a wreck! Look all around you, girls. All that chaos and fighting going on marks the beginning of a new Twisted Metal battle here in your hometown, Pupuru! Your place is now a Twisted Metal battleground!"

"Don't listen to him, Pupuru," Angela said to Pupuru as Needles grew entertained about what was going on outside. "We'll end his reign of terror here and now! Come on, Kat! Come on, Pupuru! With the three of us together, we'll be unbeatable!" Pupuru, Angela, and Kat stood together, ready to take on this one lone man; the slim crazy clown who loves bloody destruction more than anything.

"Take it easy, kids!" Needles said nervously as he backed away a little, holding onto the hat on his head. "I don't want this to be awkward. Well, what the heck. How interesting it is to fight three hot chicks on a day like this. Let's see what you can do, girls!"

Chapter Seven: Decisions Made

Meanwhile, while the battle raged on, William, Marcus, and Ratchet watched as the League of Heroes gave all they got to show the Evil Alliance a thing or two. They saw that the heroes were gaining on the villains, but not easily. They seemed to be getting nowhere with doing this; it was always the same every time: with equal powers, no one would conquer. William looked more at his powerful box, more eager than ever to press the fatal button that would end all life.

"I know what you're thinking," Ratchet spoke up. William saw Ratchet talking to him, so he slowly moved his hand away from the button. "You still have the idea, do you?"

"It is what I am highly tempted to do," William replied, with tears pouring from his eyes. He begged Ratchet to not to force him to press the button. "Please, Ratchet! Don't let me do this! I want to protect our universe! I want people to live and not die! More importantly, I want a family to be there for me!"

"You will," Ratchet replied, calming William down. "Here. Take this." Ratchet handed William what he had pulled out of his pocket. It was the Ring of Souls. He slipped it on William's finger, while the ring shown a reflection that gleamed at William's eyes. "Your family is with you now," Ratchet continued. "Your family will always be with you."

William's hand shook as he looked at the ring on his finger. He stroked it gently, petting it as though it was alive. He wanted to slip it off his finger and give it to Marcus, who politely refused it. "No thanks," Marcus spoke up. "You've had a rougher life than I had."

William clenched a fist, with the ring sticking outwards towards Ratchet. "As long as I wear this ring," he said, "I will always remember my family!"

"That's the spirit!" Ratchet replied. "You're finally starting to get rid of that 'bad apple' in your heart. You're finally getting yourself out of the dirt and into the world of love and compassion." Ratchet used the phrase that Clank had said back in our very first story. What a memorable event.

"I was the first to say that when Marcus here literally wished to be away from the human race," William said. "Those were very dark memories."

"So don't think about them," Ratchet replied. "You mustn't dwell upon the past; it will not make you feel better. Look at what you have now. Look at what will soon go on in your life as you go the extra mile and do the heroic deed you would have done long ago. You can do this, William. I know you can."

William took one last look at the Ring of Souls that was on his finger. He looked at Ratchet, remembering the day when Ratchet changed William's life forever. "Ratchet," William spoke up. "I want to do something. Something that will save all our people instead of burning them."

"It's okay, William," Ratchet replied very calmly. "Tell me, and I will help you."

It took William a while to say his next thing. He looked back and forth between the Ring of Souls and his deadly box that would destroy the entire universe. He had to make a decision. He chose the ring. And so, with that, he picked up the box and opened the window of the room they were in. He then threw the box downwards out the window, and it landed on the hard pavement below. The box shattered to bits, finally destroyed and no longer able to use.

William turned to face Ratchet, who was more than willing to help him on this new idea. "Ratchet…" William said, making his decision. "…Take me to the little girl's hometown. I want to fight."

"Will do, partner," Ratchet replied.

Later, back at the town, Needles found himself in a very tough battle against the three brave girls that thrashed him down. But he managed to get back up once he saw something approaching the city. "You're too late, girls!" he spoke up as he pointed at three objects heading this way. "The other versions of my ice cream truck are coming this way to finish the job. By my mental command, I will tell the trucks to fire their Napalm Cones and destroy the entire city!"

The trucks (think of them as from Twisted Metal 2, 3, and 4) drove the rest of the way into the town. But instead of obeying Needles' command, they began to fire their Napalm Cones directly at Needles. Needles was startled by the trucks' disobedience and dodged out of the way of the Napalm Cones. "The fools!" he exclaimed. "Why are they firing at me?!"

He took a closer look at the trucks to see that William, Ratchet, and Marcus were piloting them individually. "No!" Needles exclaimed, surprised to see the three men driving his trucks. "It cannot be! Those three are the earth's most wanted fugitives! They can't be doing this!"

"I've got news for you," Sasha Phyronix spoke up as she drove the car Pit Viper right at Needles and knocking him off-balance. "They've still got a heart of compassion."

Ratchet, William, and Marcus fired the rest of their Napalm Cones at the Evil Alliance, who had foolishly wasted all of their ammunition on the city rather than the heroes that rebelled against them. The villains' progress became reduced once the heroes began to repair any damage done to the city. The League of Heroes had now won the battle, saving the city from anything else that threatened.

"We've done it!" Ratchet spoke up after all was settled. "Now we can let Needles' men themselves undo the damage they've done to the city. And William, welcome to the League of Heroes! You're one of us now."

William had never felt any better ever since the day he changed his ways from evil to good. "Ratchet," he said slowly as he saw the villains slave throughout their work of repairing the city. "I'll never forget this. You've been one of the only people who had cared for me."

"Save your tongue, William. There's no need to thank me anymore. I'll always be with you."

Chapter Eight: Preparations

Later, while the villains worked hard into putting the city back in order, Ratchet caught sight of the Lombax general that he had met earlier. Somehow, the general came from the past to talk with Ratchet here in the present time. The general spoke: "Thank you, Ratchet. Your note told us what would happen later on in the future. So now you're safe; your father will no longer worry about you. I then used the note to bring me here into this time. Although, it was a very attractive-looking note."

Ratchet had written the note on the back of his picture of Sasha. He was at first going to use it as a ticket back to the present-time. But he had a different idea; he also brought with him a picture of the Kane family. It reminded him that Marcus and William needed help with saving the universe.

"It was all I had, but I'm glad you got my message," Ratchet replied to the general. "After all, it was a very nifty idea."

Soon, after the general headed back for his past, Needles watched as the Lombax disappeared back to his time. "So," Needles thought to himself, "they go through time, eh? Not only did Ratchet give that general the note, but he also quickly handed him the magic axe right when going back to the present. It took Ratchet a split-second to fling the axe away from himself once he flew through time. And so, the general used it to come here, doing the same thing Ratchet did when going back to his own time. He gave Ratchet back the axe once he flew back to the past. Ratchet gave the general the glass shard from Fastoon in order to return to the past. And yet…" Then, changing the subject, "…I always wondered what it was like during the days of ancient Egypt."

But then, an awful idea struck Needles' mind. "I know! I'll see what Marcus' father had left for Ratchet. Marcus has his father's diary, so he has read about the time when Charlie Kane placed a mysterious clue for Ratchet. It is said to be located somewhere in Egypt. I must go there in order to see what he had said."

With that, Needles broke away from his work and headed straight for his ice cream truck, which was parked and lined up with all the other villains' vehicles. His keys were confiscated so he couldn't take off, but that did not stop him. He ran right towards Nathan Drake, who held the keys, and knocked him over to retrieve them. Then, with the keys, he started the engine of his truck and started to drive down the road of the town. Commander Mason saw him take off, so he tried to stop him by pulling out his gun and shooting at the truck's tires so that Needles wouldn't move.

But Needles swerved his car and fired his machine guns at Mason's shoulders, stunning the commander and knocking him down to the ground. "Nothing can stop me now!" Needles exclaimed evilly as he drove off, eager to put his next plan into action. "I shall head for Egypt and learn what secret Charlie Kane has been hiding from us!"

"Egypt?!" Ratchet kept asking himself after hearing Needles' plan. "Why there specifically?"

"He's probably looking for a secret," Nathan Drake replied. "And if there's a secret, I want to find out what it is. Come on, guys! I'm going to request some passports. We're going to take a plane ride to Egypt. Needles better not be searching for the tomb of the ancient king Tutankhamen. He was the ruler of Egypt back in the B.C. time, which was thousands of years before where we are now. Oh, how I love archaeology; it always fascinates me."

"I bet it does," Ratchet said. "But we must go now, while there is still time."

As Ratchet walked towards one of the ice cream trucks that he had stolen from Needles, Sasha came over to him. "Ratchet!" she spoke up, eager to see her boyfriend. "Where have you been? I've been thinking about you lately, yet you did not come to the battle until now."

"I had some very important business to settle," Ratchet replied. "But I'm glad I took your picture with me on my trip. There's just so much truth to that old saying: one picture is worth a thousand years. I'll always keep you in my memory, Sasha. And one day, we will marry. I promise."

Chapter Nine: Ancient Egypt

Much later, once a portion of the League of Heroes made it to Egypt, their search for Needles had begun. Nathan Drake suggested that they search in the old pyramids first; he figured that Needles would raid a tomb or two. And Nathan is closer to the truth than he suspects. For a short distance away, Needles' plan began to unfold as he crept around local pyramids. "Nothing makes these sand dunes glitter like twisted metal and machine gun casings," he thought to himself. "Along the way to my unraveling scheme, I'll help those mummified pharaohs roll over in their graves by roaring through the landscape and raiding a tomb or two. I'll even take a moment to rearrange the Sphinx's mug and change its face to the face of my own. Never again will those heroes mock me! Yet I must also find that secret."

Meanwhile, as Needles was walking around in quiet, Nathan and Ratchet came across a pyramid, where they think Needles might be hiding. "Our only problem today is: where are we to dig?" Nathan said after discussing the story of the pyramid's creating from years ago. "Tutankhamen's tomb might be right under our feet. But we'd save a year of excavating if you could locate the tomb for us… you with your inventive genius. It's the only way that we can catch Needles before he does anything with the mummified corpse of Tutankhamen."

"I'm flattered, Nathan," Ratchet replied. "The one you should have sent for is… Auger! It's a crane-cab that has a giant drill mounted on the front that could tear through the pyramid's wall. And with its built-in radar device, it could spot the tomb immediately and save you months of aimless digging. Ready, Qwark?"

Captain Qwark came driving into scene, driving the crane-cab Auger and ready to drill through the wall of the pyramid. "Ready when you are, Ratchet," Qwark spoke up, excited to move on with the mission.

"You guys are kidding me," Nathan said. "It would take sheer magic to SEE through these walls."

"No," Qwark replied. "Not magic. Merely a device like this built-in radar energized by the most powerful transistors in existence. It can penetrate foot-thick walls." With that, Qwark activated the radar and read on the screen where Tutankhamen's tomb exactly lied. "We're in luck," he continued. "I've found Tutankhamen's tomb first crack out of the box. Now I'll use the giant drill that can penetrate the toughest rock. Stand back!"

Qwark used Auger to drill through the pyramid's wall; it managed to cut through so thick of a wall, everyone was surprised to see so. Once Qwark was finished, he stopped the drill and just sat there in the car, talking about himself. "I've got a big heart," he said.

But Ratchet and Nathan were not yet satisfied; the drill was still in the way, blocking the hole that it made. They couldn't see a thing with the drill still in the way of the hole. "Qwark!" Ratchet said. "Can you reverse the vehicle just a little more?"

"Sure can do," Qwark replied as he began to back the vehicle away.

But Nathan and Ratchet kept on saying: "A little more!" They said it over and over again until Qwark was right on the edge of a sandy cliff. "Perfect!" Ratchet said when Qwark fell down the cliff along with the crane-cab. Qwark screamed as he fell down there and into the big desert. "That ought to get rid of him for a while," Ratchet said, smiling. "Now we can get back to business. Look! There's Tutankhamen's tomb right there!" He and Nathan ran into the pyramid to observe all of the inside.

As they looked around, Nathan caught sight of Tutankhamen's tomb and ran right over to it. He gasped as he said: "There's his royal chest, carved on the sarcophagus! A poison asp!" He opened the coffin and looked at the rotted corpse of the once mighty pharaoh. "I've never seen such mummy wrappings. Tutankhamen must have had his own peculiar ideas about embalming."

Ratchet took a closer look at the pharaoh's corpse, but that was when Nathan caught sight of something very strange. It was the one clue that Needles had been looking for this whole time. In the next room, another coffin lied in the corner, a very peculiar-looking one. Its texture was very smooth gold, but it was the face that Nathan was most surprised about. He saw that the face on the coffin was that of a Lombax's; the face was none other than RATCHET'S FACE!

"What is this about?!" Nathan said to himself. "Is this Ratchet's father that's lying here, or is this Ratchet himself? What is this?!" He looked at the wall above the coffin and read what was drawn on the wall. Pictures told about Ratchet and Needles battling; and if Ratchet to succeed in his most challenging battle ever, he was to be the next pharaoh of Egypt. But that last part further confused Nathan and left him in heavy puzzlement, pondering over this story. Another thing that confused him was: who told this? The only clue he could find were the initials C.K. written on the wall, next to the drawing carved on there.

Also, as far as the story went, if Needles won the battle, he would have complete control over the entire planet. Such domination would overtake the world.

Nathan further stared deeper into the pictures on the wall, not knowing that Ratchet was standing right next to him, looking at the carving as well. "So this is me?" Ratchet spoke up as he stroked the wall. "This is what I am to do?"

"I don't know," Nathan replied. "Somehow, a coffin has already been prepared for you. Someone wants you to defeat Needles once and for all in order for you to take the throne of Egypt. And yet, why did he choose you? Is there something special to this?"

"I'm not waiting around to find out," Ratchet said as he walked out of the pyramid. "And if I die in this battle, so be it! If I don't come back from this fight, you will be in charge of the League of Heroes. You'll be the new leader. Good-bye."

"Wait!" Nathan exclaimed, trying to stop Ratchet from walking out.

"Stay here, Nathan!" Ratchet said. "Let me do this battle alone. It is what I must do."

Chapter Ten: Challenge Accepted

Later that night, Ratchet met up with Needles, who was more than willing to fight to the end with our heroic Lombax. "How inspiring!" Needles said very excitedly. "I challenge you to battle! And the winner gets to be the next pharaoh of Egypt! I hope I win this one!"

"Don't be so sure of it," Ratchet replied. "Nobody knows who will win this battle. It might be me, or it might be you. We don't know." Suddenly, Ratchet mysteriously croaked like a frog after saying that.

"I knew it!" Needles said evilly. "You're all croaked up! I knew you would be so nervous as to come to me and give me an offer such as this. This is quite a major embarrassment for you! But if it's a fight you want, it's what you'll get! And yet you are tired, Ratchet."

"I must be," Ratchet replied. "I've been very restless lately."

"Then you must sleep. We'll meet tomorrow night. Find the biggest pyramid in this land, and that will be a good-fitting battle arena. I hope you gather an audience to cheer you on, like I did with mine."

"Just you wait, Needles!" Ratchet said, confident that he'll win. "My friends are already counting on me. I am wishing for a good future ahead of me."

"But do you even know who drew those pictures on the wall of Tutankhamen's pyramid?" Needles asked, further prying into Ratchet's mind. "It's quite a mystery. It tells about my fate as well as yours. But the way that my face was drawn looked to weak and soft. It looked so much like the face of Marcus Kane. I need to know why!"

"I think what it's saying is…" Ratchet tried to explain as best as he could, trying to put his finger on what mystery lied on those carvings. "Perhaps our mystery guy is saying that I would revive Marcus of your power. I saved him from you, if you can remember. Now all I have to deal with is you. I've had enough of you controlling people's minds! I will end you once and for all!"

"Those are brave words, Ratchet," Needles taunted. "But I hope they are your last words! If you have any prayers, say them now!"

"Just you wait…" Ratchet said as he walked away, trembling with nervousness and fear, fearing that this would be the last battle that he would ever fight. "Just…" But he said no more; he felt very sick, further haunted by what had been drawn on the wall of that pyramid. His fate would surely be sealed.

"I knew it," Needles said again as he watched Ratchet walk away. "You're too afraid to face the monster that further haunts you forever! I'll be there to find you and destroy you! I promise you that!"

Later that night, as Ratchet laid in his sleeping bag, in a tent planted near Tutankhamen's pyramid, his mind ran away with him, easily hindering his courage. "I don't feel very good," he thought to himself. "What if I'll let everybody down? Even Sasha! What will become of her? No!" Suddenly, Ratchet's mind snapped like a bone breaking. "No! Don't even think about it! The only thing to remember is: tomorrow is the big day. I must be ready for this battle!"

But even when Ratchet was thinking that, Needles' face began to appear in his mind, taunting him. "You fool!" the face spoke up. "Soon, the fruits of victory shall be mine! When I win, not only will I be pharaoh, but I'll also have your head as my prize!"

Soon, Ratchet began to dream deeply about the battle of our very first story, back when Ratchet was to free Nathan Drake from the chains that Needles had set on him. "I hope this battle won't be like that time," Ratchet thought as he dreamt about the battle. His mind drifted off to that particular time when Needles was inside Marcus Kane's mind, controlling him. Marcus, back then known as Sweet Tooth, had that big machete as his weapon against Ratchet's Omniwrench.

The battle had raged on, as Sweet Tooth gained the upper hand against his very weak opponent. Soon, Ratchet was pinned down to the floor of the prison building that Sweet Tooth had stolen, as Sweet Tooth gloated in triumph. "I have defeated the perfect opponent!" Sweet Tooth spoke up, claiming his victory over the defeated one.

Ratchet tried to get back up to his feet, but couldn't. He felt as if this was his end. "What am I going to do?!" he stuttered.

"You?!" Sweet Tooth replied. "You shall do nothing! I have made the perfect plan: I shall sell all my prisoners in order to raise the funds for a new Twisted Metal tournament! And I myself shall compete. I shall destroy animals… people… mountains… CITIES!" He laughed so hard, he seemed to have lost his mind. "And as for you, Ratchet," he continued, "I have merely demonstrated that even an alien is putty before my power! How does that make you feel?"

"You monster!" Ratchet shrieked, feeling intense pain engulf his weary body. "You did this to me!"

"On the contrary, Ratchet, you only want to help yourself. All you care about is your father, whom you have missed your whole life. My father is dead as well as yours. How does that make you feel? Face it, Ratchet: we're both broken people." That was what was said before Ratchet was taken to the prison cell where Nathan Drake was kept.

Where we are now, Ratchet laid there in the tent, remembering the exact words that Sweet Tooth had said that time. "Maybe he's right," Ratchet thought to himself. "I am a broken person. I am nothing but a joke… no!" His mind snapped back to its senses again. "I mustn't think about it! I mustn't worry too much. I've got to pull myself together. I must exercise now."

With all of Ratchet's muttering going on, it woke up Clank, a robot worried about his best friend. Ratchet saw that Clank was awake, so he went over to him and inserted something into the robot's storage compartment. Ratchet put in his own journal, keeping it secret and safe from any prying eyes. "What are you doing?" Clank spoke up as he saw what Ratchet was doing.

"Listen, Clank: you're my best friend, so I expect you to keep this a secret," Ratchet replied. "This will be my most challenging battle ever, and I know that something will definitely happen to me. If I do not make it out of this battle alive, do not take out my journal. Never look into it, and do not let anybody else read it. Got me?"

"But Ratchet, we're your best friends," Clank protested. "We don't want you to get hurt."

"I shall do what I must. I love you all. Remember that."

Chapter Eleven: The Battle Begins

Finally, the day came when Ratchet and Needles were to come face-to-face with each other in the greatest battle that they had ever fought. The arena set was the biggest pyramid in the land, an empty one big enough for the two rivals to clash. Ratchet and Needles each sat at a far-side wall of the pyramid's inside, being coached by Nathan and Mr. Ash. The two helpers wanted to give our warriors their own battle uniforms, but they refused them.

"No," Ratchet said, brushing away the uniform. "I'll do this with all I can."

"Forget it," Needles said at the other end of the arena. "I prefer a challenge with what I've got."

The two fighters stood up from their seats, ready to lock themselves in hard-core combat. Ratchet was handed his Omniwrench to use against the evil clown. Needles was handed his machete to use against the heroic Lombax. Now they were ready to take each other on.

"Ratchet," Nathan spoke up from the far end of the room, "you'll need your uniform. If you go against him like that, you'll be finished for good!"

"Forget it, Nathan," Ratchet replied. "I'll get him with everything I've got. I can do this!"

Needles walked closer to Ratchet, raising his machete to make the first strike. "If you have any prayers to say, Ratchet, say them now! This is your finish!" That's when the battle began. Needles swung his machete down at Ratchet to try to pry the Lombax's head open. But Ratchet was agile enough to swing his Omniwrench upwards and cause backfire, making the machete go back and prick Needles' head. Little trickles blood were already coming from Needles' head, staining his big hair. "Very neat trick there, Ratchet!" he said. "Let's see if I can match it!"

With that, Needles came closer to make another slash with his machete, cutting through one of Ratchet's big ears. It was a very painful experience for Ratchet, with blood coming down the damaged ear. "I told you I was the best!" Needles exclaimed in triumph.

"Don't bet on it!" Ratchet replied as he jabbed his Omniwrench in Needles' gut. What a pain Needles felt in his stomach. This was certainly going to be a painful battle. "Now let's settle this!" Ratchet continued as he prepared for more of this battle.

"Fine!" Needles replied. "This victory shall be mine!" And so, the battle raged on.

In one moment, Ratchet jumped behind Needles and threw his Omniwrench at the back of Needles' head, knocking him down to the ground. Once Ratchet gained back his wrench, Needles got back up and swung his machete around like a propeller and threw it at Ratchet. But Ratchet was agile enough to dodge some of the impact, so the machete merely pierced through his chest. Needles then lunged forward to make another blow with his machete, only to meet up with Ratchet's Omniwrench, clashing the two weapons together. Ratchet was strong enough to wrap his tail around Needles' legs and use it to throw him forward.

Needles then had a crafty idea: he took out two freeze missiles from his pocket and fired them at Ratchet, hoping to freeze him. But Ratchet deflected the missiles with his wrench, throwing them in two different directions. Needles became very mad, raising his machete to make yet another strike. Ratchet was quick enough to hurl his wrench forwards, knocking the big knife out of Needles' hands. Now it was just the two warriors, fighting with their weapons no more. Ratchet came right towards Needles with a big punch in the face that the villain never forgot. It was powerful enough to knock Needles out cold, but the evil clown stayed awake to continue the battle.

"You have not won yet, Ratchet!" Needles exclaimed. "I still have my secret weapon!" He took out a mysterious object out of his pocket; it was a potion. As Ratchet watched the villain drink the potion from the beaker, he recognized the color from a long while ago. Then figured it out: it was the exact same potion that Agent Stone created. Stone then gave it to William, then it was passed down to Ratchet for his "prize" after winning the Twisted Metal competition of 2015. It was what turned Ratchet into a complete monster!

Now Needles was done drinking the potion (only half of it) and began to change into a horrifying beast, stronger than he was before. In his madness, he threw the beaker at Ratchet's face, shattering it to pieces, and spilling the remaining deadly potion all over his face. Even our Lombax hero then transformed into a terrifying freak, like he did once before. The two of them now have become vile bloody predators, about to attack each other.

Ratchet charged straight at Needles, with his great strength, and held the villain still to keep on punching him in the face. Needles' face began to bleed, also revealing teeth missing from his mouth. "You are very good!" Needles spoke up, now in a monstrous voice. "But I am always the best!"

With that, Needles used his now-big fists and blew Ratchet away to the far end of the room. He then ran over to the Lombax-monster and lifted him into the air, then slammed him furiously to the hard ground in one bloody thud. He kept on slamming Ratchet to the floor over and over again, weakening Ratchet in this fierce fight.

The eyes of Ratchet's bruised face became blurry for a moment before he could see clearly into the audience that watched him. As he lied there on the floor, he caught sight of a distraught-looking Sasha, watching him in horror about this fight. Her face was covered in tears, not believing what nightmare she has stepped into with Ratchet. "Ratchet," she stuttered. "You're a monster…"

After hearing those words, Ratchet then thought to himself: "It just had to happen! Why?! Why did it have to happen right there?! It's useless now! I'm done for! I let everyone down! But more importantly, I let Sasha down! She doesn't love me anymore! I'm done!"

"Come, Ratchet!" Needles spoke as he picked up Ratchet and placed him on his shoulder. "We are gonna go for a little trip, shall we?" The villain carried Ratchet outside the pyramid, ready to end the battle with a very brutal finish. All the other heroes that came on this trip tried to go over there and stop Needles in his act, but Needles used his monstrous strength to roll a giant boulder to block the exit.

Later, Needles climbed to the top of the tall pyramid, where he would settle the score once and for all. Once he reached the top, he held Ratchet over the edge and said: "One drop from this height and you die! Good-bye, Ratchet! You've always been a worthy opponent of mine, but now your life is at its end!"

Ratchet looked down at the ground below. He saw that it was a very hard, tough, and rough pavement; if he was to land on there, he would surely die. Is this to be the end of Ratchet? Will we have to say good-bye to him?

And so, the villain did it. Simply, he dropped Ratchet down to the ground below. He did not throw him down; he simply just let go and let the helpless Lombax fall. As Ratchet fell down and down, destiny held her breath as Ratchet felt himself blackening out so suddenly. What was soon to come of him?

In one moment, a silent hush. Then…

SSSSSSLLLLLLLAAAAAAAMMMMMM!

Chapter Twelve: Haunted by the Memories

Hours later, Ratchet suddenly opened his eyes and was wide awake. But all he could see was pure blackness. He tried to move, but he found himself wrapped up in some special cloth. Even his face was covered, so if he cried out for help, it would be totally pointless.

"What's going on here?" Ratchet thought to himself as he looked up into the pitch-black air. He tried to lift his head, but it ended up hitting something with a thud, hitting his already-hurting head. "I'm my normal self again, but my head is pounding more than ever," he continued thinking. "What is this? Why am I here? Am I…?" That's when a thought struck his head. "Now I know what's going on here: I've been placed here in the Lombax tomb! I'm now the one who dwells in this coffin! And yet… why wasn't I mummified properly, like in the past? Why?"

Ratchet tried to scream out for help: "LET ME OUT OF HERE! I WON'T STOP SHOUTING UNTIL YOU DO!" But lo, no one heard his cry, nor did someone come to his rescue. Instead, he was left alone in the coffin, with no hope of ever coming out.

"I'll die in here," Ratchet began to think again. "I'll be left in here until I die of hunger and thirst. I'll never make it out of here alive!"

Then, like the fire on a candle dying out, his thoughts suddenly switched to something different. "If only it didn't happen," he thought. "If only I had not come to Earth at all! I should not be here! I'm a threat to this world, and I've let everyone down! It keeps me thinking about the time when I chose to stay here on this pitiful planet…"

The mind of Ratchet drifted off to the time of when he explored Earth for the first time. He had heard about the planet when he was at an intergalactic map shop, learning about the planets of the Milky Way Galaxy. The shop owner warned Ratchet about Earth and how the humans did not welcome any aliens that came. Ratchet was still interested in going there, but Clank did not feel like doing it. Ratchet did it anyway, making the mistake of landing in the middle of Los Angeles, California.

After landing, Ratchet was met by Raiden and Solid Snake, who were suspicious about the Lombax at first. But Ratchet proved himself as a friendly alien, assuring Raiden that there was no danger. Snake did not buy it at first, thinking that Ratchet was a crazy psychopath. Later, he was convinced about Ratchet's innocence after reading the data collected in Clank's databanks. Sly Cooper was the next person to come to the scene, seeing that he and Ratchet had something in common: they like to go on great adventures for something special.

Nathan Drake was the last man to see Ratchet for the first time. He thought that Ratchet's kind was not dangerous, and so HE was convinced as well. But, in the shadows of that particular event, Agent Stone watched the scene unfold, relating to the time when he collected the tape-recorder box. "Perfect!" he thought as he watched what was going on. "Then my hypothesis is true! Aliens do exist! I've got to hand it to Calypso; he gave me the information I need!"

Meanwhile, before the heroes formed the team and headed for the planet Veldin, Needles was controlling Marcus Kane's mind at the time. He had just brought Marcus back from the dead, now a zombie and now back to being the evil clown known to the world as Sweet Tooth. He met Sir Daniel Fortesque for the first time, promising him money for whatever whim was requested.

Also, William Sparks (back then known as Calypso) wanted Nathan Drake captured so that he could collect information from him about a certain ancient city. William would use that particular city as a new battleground for the next Twisted Metal competition that he would host. And so, he promised a reward to the man who would capture Nathan, but that's when Sweet Tooth caught wind of the deal. He and Sir Daniel captured Nathan and handed him over to William, not knowing that it was William himself that had made the deal.

And so, William disguised himself as an old man while receiving Nathan as his prize. He later took the disguise off when he questioned Nathan about the ancient city. But the archaeologist refused to talk, and so William felt that it was a useless try, so he handed him back to Sweet Tooth and Daniel (but not before putting back on his disguise). The two freaks kept Nathan as their own prisoner, inspiring them to capture other people and hang them up in a stolen prison building.

That's when the adventure of our very first story began. Ratchet soon let the rest of the events go as he felt himself blackening away. "I don't belong here," he thought. "I don't belong anywhere. Life means nothing to me now. I'll die here… I'll…"

With those words as the last words that he muttered, his eyes closed again. It was the end for him; the end for our Lombax hero Ratchet, whose life hung by a thread. It is the end.

Or is it?

Chapter Thirteen: Needles Claims the Throne

Outside Tutankhamen's pyramid, it was raining hard. It was very early in the morning (6:00 a.m.) when Ratchet woke up in his coffin. Now… can we say he's dead?

Meanwhile, at another pyramid, Needles looked at a peculiar-looking throne decorated with gold. "I'm glad to be back to my beautiful normal self again," he spoke up as he adjusted a bathrobe he wore. "Now that I have won the battle, it's time for me to gain possession of the throne I've always craved!"

Needles sat down on the throne, enjoying it as his very own. "The pharaoh's throne! Mine! I was born to possess it! Now I am the new pharaoh of Egypt! All people will pay homage to me! And yet…" He began to think about something more sinister than ever. "I cannot rule this country alone; I'll need somebody to rule with me at my side. I can't believe I'm doing this, but… bring me the girl and the long-haired freak!"

Needles commanded Club Kid and Mr. Grimm (whom also escaped from the work done at the Oboro forest) to drag in Sasha and William, now captives of this sinister evil clown. "William!" Needles continued. "I know you have it with you! Hand it over!"

"Hand what over?" William questioned. Hearing this angered Needles greatly, causing him to grow more impatient than ever.

"The Ring, you fool! Hand over the Ring!" Needles screamed.

"Hold it, dude!" Club Kid spoke up as he reached his hand into William's pocket and pulled out something. "If you want what you expect," Club Kid continued, "an easy way will be to loot through people's pockets!" (People, do not take this literally. This is something that only evil villains would do. You are all not villains, I know that) He walked towards Needles, holding a shiny object in the palm of his hand. "Behold, yo! The Ring of Souls is now yours!"

Needles looked at the Ring in Club Kid's hand, admiring the awesome power that he would soon use on the whole world. "Beautiful…" he whispered as he slowly took it and placed it on his finger. "It's now mine. Just what I wanted. Thank you, Club Kid. You may go now."

Respecting Needles' request, Club Kid left the room, taking Mr. Grimm with him, and into the pyramid's prison hall (but not before dragging William in there with them). Needles then turned to face Sasha and said to her: "Perhaps I have an offer to propose to you." With that, he knelt down on one knee and held the ring out to her. "WILL YOU MARRY ME?"

Sasha's heart leaped after hearing what Needles said. With a face drenched in tears, she forced herself to back away from the evil villain and shouted at him: "NO!"

Needles' smile turned upside down into an evil snarl. "So you refuse, eh? Men, take her away! I want her out of my sight!"

Club Kid and Mr. Grimm came back and took Sasha away, away to the same prison cell that William was being kept at. Once they threw her in, they left her alone with William. William had the courage to say something: "I heard everything. You don't need to keep it a secret. Needles knew that after Ratchet would transform into a monster, Ratchet would find a grudge to hold against you. That's how monsters are. But Ratchet is no monster; I know that there is still good in him. Ratchet has always loved you from the start, ever since the two of you met. And so, I have a plan that will bring your boy back…"

William explained what to do in order to set things the right way. After hearing everything, Sasha tried to calm herself down and went right away to the plan. She called out Needles' name, expecting him to come.

But Needles tried to ignore her call. Instead, he sat on his throne, thinking about what great riches would come his way. But, after about ten minutes, he was tired of hearing Sasha call out. And so, he went to the prison hall to silence her. "What do you want?!" he barked. "Speak up! I'm busy!"

"Needles," Sasha said, as part of the plan. "I have changed my mind. I DO want to marry you! I really do!"

"What?!" Needles said, shocked. "Impossible! Fine! Here's the ring, like I promised you." But giving Sasha the Ring of Souls was a big mistake; once her cage was unlocked, she made a run for it, taking the Ring with her. "Get back here!" Needles shouted at her. But she kept on running, not stopping until she had reached Tutankhamen's pyramid.

Chapter Fourteen: Tuntara the Ring God

Once she got inside, she looked around for Ratchet's tomb. But when she did, she received a nasty surprise. She saw Nathan Drake staring at the drawing on the wall above Ratchet's coffin. Nathan stood very still, trying to pry his mind into the wall's carving, solving the mystery of this prophecy. "I still don't get it," he spoke up after a moment. "Who would draw this here and claim to have found Egypt's new hero?!" He was so mad that he picked a loose brick off the floor and threw it at the wall.

But, doing that caused something mysterious to happen. The wall began to split into two, like a door, revealing a secret room, with a golden figure in plain sight. Perplexed by the mysterious golden statue, Nathan walked closer and looked all around it. "What is this? Whom does he resemble?"

Sasha came closer, still holding the Ring, and explained: "William told me about him. He is the real bearer of the Ring of Souls. He is known as Tuntara the Ring God. Perhaps he can bring back Ratchet."

"How?" Nathan asked. He had to look closer at the statue's fingers to see what Sasha meant. Each finger held a different ring, all having the same origin as our Ring of Souls. On his fingers were (Nathan listed them):

The Ring of Healing (healing those who are sick or injured)

The Ring of Death (sending a person to instant death)

The Ring of Destruction (destroying large masses of land)

The Ring of Creation (creating large masses of land)

The Ring of Sameness (creating a copy of anything)

The Ring of Gravity (levitating an object with telekinetic power)

The Ring of Appearance (turning something visible or invisible)

The Ring of Sight (seeing something very far away)

The Ring of Memory (thinking about any event that happened at any time)

Now it all made sense. Every single Ring that Tuntara bore had a special power. But Nathan only saw nine of them; there was one missing from one of the statue's fingers. The Ring of Souls belonged there. Sasha slowly walked over to Tuntara to place the Ring of Souls on the only bare finger. "Sasha," Nathan said as she went over there. "Be careful."

Once Sasha placed the Ring onto Tuntara's finger, the statue's eyes began to glow bright. Tuntara finally spoke, but his lips did not move when he did so. It was basically a mind in a statue. "Welcome to my land!" he said. "And thank you for waking me from my very long slumber. Ah, I see you have returned the Ring of Souls to me. Perhaps, if you are wondering, I shall tell you its true origin…

"I have been created many, many years ago, when ancient Egypt was first settled. For power, they gave me my great Rings for power and domination over the land. Although, I had one Ring missing from me. Someone needed to forge it for me, until one day, something very mysterious happened. A lone man somehow found a way down into the dark realm known as the Underworld. And there, he saw that a man named Ash had forged a special ring, the Ring of Souls, to give to one of his servants. The man took the ring from him and gave it to me so that I can have supreme power over Egypt.

"But then, another thousand years later, Ash took the Ring of Souls from me. I was left powerless and was put into a deep sleep for thousands and thousands of years. I could not wake up until the Ring of Souls was returned to me; and now you have finally given it back to me. I want to thank you, young lady, for the gift that woke me up again. I hear you are looking for a young man, who had a prophecy written about him. Well, first observe, the man who wrote it up!"

With that, a glow came from the Ring of Souls, indicating that a soul was about to come back. The image of a man materialized, then a full-fleshed person appeared. It was Charlie Kane, Marcus' father. "What?" he spoke up, surprised that he was now back in the land of the living. "What am I doing here? I thought I was already dead."

"You were," Tuntara replied. "Look on the wall behind you. Do you recognize that drawing from years ago?"

Charlie turned and looked at it, shocked by the familiar-looking wall carving. "Indeed I do! I drew this years ago when I found out that my son had become a psychotic evil clown. I wanted help, so I used the magic axe to travel through time and observe what was to come in the future. And so, I went back to the past and drew about it on the wall here. It must be that time now."

"But—" Sasha stuttered, beginning to cry again. "Ratchet did not win this battle. He's dead now!"

"There, there, little girl," Charlie said, cheering Sasha up. "Things will get better."

Completely ignoring the two, Nathan turned his attention to the last part of the wall's drawing. He saw those initials again, C.K., and thought: "So THAT'S what it stands for! **C.K.** stands for **C**harlie **K**ane! Wow! If only I thought of that sooner!"

Tuntara thought for a moment, then he continued: "Ah, I now hear the cry of a young one's soul. I shall bring him here; his body is now dead, but I shall talk with his soul."

Chapter Fifteen: Ratchet's Noble Choice

Suddenly, Ratchet's soul seemed to have walked straight out of his coffin. The sight of this haunted Sasha; she almost fainted until Charlie caught her before she could hit the floor. Ratchet looked around the walls, now knowing who had drawn those carvings, and what their meaning was. "So," he spoke up, "this is what I am to become? This is who I am now? Why?"

"You have sacrificed yourself to save your friends," Tuntara explained. "You are now a ghost that wanders around, looking for a new body to dwell in. But, because of your noble and generous deed, leading desperate ones to the light and sacrificing yourself, you may choose what is to happen next."

Ratchet stood there and thought for what to do next. Then he answered: "I'm sorry, but I'll have to do this. I have been nothing but a mediocre piece of nothing. I cannot go on like this anymore. It's time that I went on with life, just like my father. I want my soul taken away. I want every piece of memory, everything that I have done, everything about me taken away! Come on, Tuntara! Take it all away! It's what I need!"

Tuntara sat there on his throne, thinking about what to do. Then, a glow came from the Ring of Souls, about to take Ratchet's soul for good. But then, he stopped. "I cannot do it!" he said. "I cannot take the life of one so young, so noble."

"You didn't listen to me!" Ratchet protested. "I'm done for! I'm sick of trying over and over again! I always end up failing! I did not rescue Nathan from Needles' prison building; Sackboy did. I did not save the Opposite Dimension; the Opposite Charlie did. I did not stop the Tyhrranoid invasion; William did. I did not destroy Calypso Industries; Dark Tooth did. I did not do any of those things! All those friends of mine did those things. But I want to thank them for their bravery and courage."

"If that's the case, you should help," Tuntara continued. "But you DID do some certain things."

"What is that?"

"You freed Marcus Kane from Needles, his split-personality. You brought the man William Sparks to the light where he belonged. Those were very kind deeds."

"But how do you know this if you were in a long sleep?"

"The Ring of Memory helped me just now. But for now, I shall do a great deed in return: I shall give you back your life, along with all the other souls in the Ring of Souls. Everyone in here shall now be alive again. They did not die from old age but from murderous deeds in which they fell victim to. Go now!"

With that, the Ring of Souls glowed again, giving life back to Ratchet again. Ratchet's soul walked back to the coffin where his body lied, and slowly entered back into his body, alive again. Now back in his own body, Ratchet's eyes opened, and he immediately tore off his mummy wrappings. He was now back to his normal self, along with all the other people from the Ring of Souls.

Once Ratchet got out of the coffin, he went over to Sasha, who was recovering from that horrid sight of Ratchet's ghost. He comforted her as her eyes opened to see his real face again. "It's okay, Sasha," Ratchet said. "I'm back. We're safe now." Ratchet looked up and saw Charlie standing in front of him. "So you're the real Charlie Kane?" he asked.

"That's right," Charlie replied. "You're looking at the real thing. I drew this carving because I knew you would come and liberate my son from Needles. I knew I could count on you."

"Thank you, Charlie. But Needles is still out there. We have to stop him before he can give any orders or laws as pharaoh of Egypt. Let's go!"

Meanwhile, at the prison hall of Needles' pyramid, William sat in his cell, hearing everything that went on earlier. "Ratchet's safe," he said to himself. "He's safe just as I am. I don't want anything to happen to him again. He is like a brother to me; so trusting, generous, and helpful. And so, I must help him in return. I must get out of this cell to put the next part of the plan in action. I told Sasha about Tuntara the Ring God, but I didn't tell her about my other bomb-box. I destroyed my first one, which was to end all life in an explosion. My second one is to cause a big IMPLOSION, which will not be so strong because I already drained most of its power. Still, I must use it to vanquish this evil."

William dug through his long hair and touched something that he needed to use. He dug a hairpin out, using it as a key to get out of his prison cell. "This is just what I need," he thought as he left the hall after escaping. "I am now ready start what I should have long ago. Sometimes, sacrifices need to be made."

Chapter Sixteen: Needles' Revenge

As Needles sat on his throne, Club Kid and Mr. Grimm came rushing towards him. "What do you two want?" Needles asked as he sat up. "I'm still waiting for my precious gold and money to be studied."

"That's exactly why we're here," Club Kid replied. "William has gone mad and escaped. He had broken into our money room and stole everything!"

"What?!" Needles exclaimed. "That's impossible! Not one man could have stolen…" He stopped himself. He got down off his throne and ran to the money room to see for himself. He not only found all his money missing, but he also found that a giant hole had been drilled in the wall. This was definitely the work of some construction vehicle. "Don't tell me Buster Cobb has come back!" he exclaimed.

But Buster Cobb, a contestant of a previously hosted Twisted Metal competition, had not come back at all (William turned him into a baby after winning the contest). Instead, Needles saw that Captain Qwark had come back from out of the desert, and that he used the crane-cab Auger to damage the pyramid's walls. "Good evening, Needles!" Qwark shouted as he backed away with Auger.

"You won't get away with this!" Needles exclaimed as he took two Napalm Cones out of his pocket and fired them at Qwark. But Qwark was able to dodge them, then came right towards Needles for an uppercut punch. The blow hit Needles very hard and sent him flying into the air for a split-second. When he came back down, he felt that his chin was now busted from Qwark's punch. "You are indeed a strong fighter," he complimented. "But you'll soon learn that I am far stronger than you are!"

Meanwhile, Ratchet and Sasha snuck through the back of the pyramid to head for Needles' laboratory. "What was the next part of the plan that William mentioned?" Ratchet asked, curiously.

"He didn't say anything else," Sasha replied. "I don't know why."

"Well, we have to find out fast." But before they could do anything else, they were soon caught by Club Kid and Mr. Grimm, and had their arms pinned behind their own backs.

"You ain't going anywhere!" Club Kid spoke up as he pulled something out of his pocket. "Not until you be the first test subject to try this." He took a small bottle, carrying another transformation potion, and shoved it down Ratchet's throat. Mr. Grimm did the same thing with Sasha, shoving a potion down HER throat.

The two villains then let the two heroes go and stepped back to watch the process begin. "Let it begin!" they both sang out. Ratchet felt that his eyes were growing red, and that his head caught on fire. Sasha felt that a mask was slipping onto her face… permanently! The two heroes that once stood up for what was right were now maniacal monsters… THE NEW SWEET TOOTH AND DOLLFACE! SWEET RATCHET AND DOLL-SASHA!

"Go!" Mr. Grimm commanded the two. "Go and serve your master!"

Blindly obeying, Sweet Ratchet and Doll-Sasha turned and ran towards where Needles was. Once they got there, Needles saw what his two servants had done to them. "Yes!" he exclaimed happily. "My potion worked! Now I have given rebirth to Sweet Tooth and Dollface!" He laughed maniacally like a madman, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Like a coward, Captain Qwark ran off and fell back down into the deep desert below like earlier in this story. Needles turned and faced his two new servants. "I ought to give you two a machete and sledgehammer. It will be such a pleasure fighting ALONGSIDE of you than to fight AGAINST you. But first, before we begin our first mission together, I myself shall take a potion."

And so, he took out another potion and drank it deep within his throat. He then felt himself transform again, like earlier, except more deadlier than ever. His body completely changed into something far larger than normal. All his clothes tore off as he grew wings out from his back. His head changed as well, but his hair then ignited itself on fire. He had completely turned into a terrifying dragon.

"Ah!" he exclaimed in triumph. "I feel fiery power surging through my new body! I feel so alive! Now come, my servants, and we shall go destroy the League of Heroes! I shall rule this entire pitiful planet! Those who defy me shall be burned down to a crisp! All will pay homage to me and me only! So says Needles!" He laughed evilly again, thinking that he had surely overcome the world.

Chapter Seventeen: William to the Rescue

But, just then, William came running into the room, holding a special chemical-gas that would snap Ratchet and Sasha out of their evil hypnosis. "No harm shall come to them!" William spoke up as Ratchet and Sasha fell in a heap from the gas. "I must help them!"

"Don't even try it, Calypso!" Needles barked. "I am now many times bigger than any living being! I am now supreme over all!"

"You are not!" William replied. "There is no one who could rule this world, other than the God I now know! And by the way, the name is William. I was given that name on the day of my birth. It is still official. And as for you, you came up with your own name yourself. I hope that name never reaches the ears of any living being again! This is your finish! This is your end!"

Needles saw that William held his second bomb-box in his hands. "Are you mad?!" Needles said. "If you use that on me, you yourself will die as well! You have certainly gone insane!"

"I must do what I can to save this world! I am willing to do this for the people who had been so kind to me!"

"I certainly hope you're not including Ratchet. He has been a fool ever since I met him for the first time."

"Don't you say that! He was like my brother from the start! He wanted to help me become my old self again, and he has succeeded! I want to remain this way; I want my life to be a heroic one. I want to be a hero, to help the world in its time of need! I must do this! Good-bye!"

Before William could do anything else, Needles opened up his giant mouth, ready to breath out flaming tongues of fire. But it gave William the chance to throw his bomb-box into Needles' throat so that the evil villain could be defeated once and for all. First, after swallowing the box, Needles felt his stomach sink in as he became caught in the implosion that occurred inside of him. William stood there and watched it happen, as the implosion grew bigger, almost to the point of sucking him in.

But it was not too late; Ratchet and Sasha came just in time and pushed William out of the way of the powerful implosion. The three brave heroes dodged the implosion that sucked in the entire pyramid, destroying it completely. The trio got back up to their feet and saw what they had done to save the world. Club Kid and Mr. Grimm were sure to be caught in the implosion as well.

"You did it," Ratchet complimented to William. "You saved the world from Needles! He's gone! Gone forever! He can no longer mess with peoples' minds! You did it, William! Thank you!"

"But there was one thing missing," William replied. "I myself wanted to be caught in the implosion. I do not deserve to roam free after all that I had done throughout the years of engulfing the world in pain. I wanted it to be over for me."

"Don't say that, William," Ratchet protested. "People who have done things like that deserve a second chance. Another chance is all we need to change things."

"Thank you, Ratchet. Thank you for the encouragement. Life must go on. But don't you want to claim your throne as pharaoh of Egypt?"

"Nah! I wouldn't want to. Besides, I'd rather stick with my friends."

"How thoughtful of you. You're still the hero you always wanted to be. You'll need your journal back from Clank."

"Remind me to do so later on. Anyway, William, I want you to do something. Listen closely. Go back to America, back to Los Angeles, and meet someone there. She will be eager to meet you."

"I will, Ratchet. Thank you." As William walked away and started heading for his car, he thought to himself: "If he says that someone is eager to meet me back in America, what can he mean? Could it be… MY FAMILY!"

Later, Ratchet and Sasha met up with Charlie Kane and Nathan Drake, then prepared to make the flight back to Los Angeles, California; back to the United States of America.

Epilogue: Will You Marry Me?

After arriving back at Los Angeles, Ratchet and Sasha spent time together at a local beach, discussing about what's new. "Marcus and Charlie reunited with the rest of the Kane family," Ratchet explained. "They're back after what happened back at Egypt. Also, William has HIS family back as well. They've been getting along more often, not thinking about any dark thoughts and deeds."

Sasha chuckled after hearing that. "WE are certainly getting along more," she said.

"So true." Ratchet looked up into the sky and saw that the sun had fully set, with the moon shining into the dark night. He and Sasha sat down on the sands of the beach, just thinking about each other. Ratchet then looked down at the sand and saw that there was something buried next to him. He dug through the sand to find a green bottle with a written message in it. He opened it up and took out the message to read it. It read clearly:

"My daughter seems worthy enough. You are now worthy to take her hand in marriage, living together forever. Protect her, Ratchet. Take good care of her. Enclosed is a gift for you to give to her."

Ratchet shook the bottle once more, and out came a beautiful ring with a shiny white diamond on it. "I can't believe it," he thought to himself. "It's actually going to happen."

Sasha got back up to her feet and was about to take off. "Well, it's getting late," she said as she was about to leave. "I must be going now."

"Wait, Sasha," Ratchet said as he knelt on one knee. "I have to ask you one quick thing before you leave. Before I do so, I must ask you another thing: remember the time when we first met? I asked those four strong words only as a joke when you made my day. But now it's time for me to do this for real. Sasha…" But he stopped himself right there. He began to think about that dream he had in our third story, about him about to marry Sasha and Sweet Tooth coming to ruin everything with his strong "atom manipulator." But he also thought that it would never happen here and now, because Needles is now dead and gone… forever.

Ratchet faced the courage to hold out the ring and finally ask: "Will you marry me?"

Sasha gasped at what Ratchet said there. It reminded her of when Needles asked her at first, then she refused. She could not make her decision. "Ratchet," she slowly answered. "I do love you… but I need more time. We've only known each other for a short time. I'm sorry."

"NO!" Ratchet thought inside his sad head. "This would have been the PERFECT OPPORTUNITY! But instead, I get the same result as it was in that dream I had. Why does it have to end this way?! WHY?!" Ratchet stood back up and stared deep into the white diamond on the ring. "This would have been as good a time as ever. But, I guess, if you think you're not ready yet, that's okay. I can always wait. Thank you."

With that, Ratchet walked away from Sasha, leaving her alone as the only one on that beach. Perhaps there would be a time when Ratchet would finally take Sasha's hand in marriage. But perhaps, maybe, he would be waiting for a very long time…

**THE END!**

**Author's Note: This has certainly been a pleasure writing the longest-running PlayStation All-Stars fanfiction story series. I thought up about the first one in late May 2013; although, I did not finally put it into words until two months later in July 2013. I had a bad case of a cold when I worked on it. I thought that it would be my only PSASBR story that I would write, but I was wrong. I soon made Carnival of Destruction about a month and a half later. Also, my first story was originally going to be only a Ratchet and Clank story, until I found out that Ratchet was in the same game as Sweet Tooth in PSASBR. I love the "Ratchet and Clank" game series as well as "Twisted Metal", and so I put the two together. Then I recognized the fact that Nathan Drake from "Uncharted" was in the game as well, along with Raiden from "Metal Gear," and Heihachi Mishima from "Tekken." (Although, I don't play Tekken anymore; I just put Heihachi and Yoshimitsu in as cameos) I did not post my first story until September 2013; but does not matter about when I had posted it. All that matters is when I had WRITTEN it; it has almost been a whole year since I had thought up the very first adventure. This has certainly been a success writing my 50****th**** fanfiction story, using the franchise and game series that I used for my very first story. It has been such an honor being here on the FanFiction website. I would like to thank N Kirby for plots and inspirations, and for being my biggest fan. I would also like to thank Magic Detective for the support, and werewolf lover99 for the positive complements. Thanks to iNatsuBlueCyan for being the first one to favorite one of my stories, and to Gaige's Peppy Sweetheart for the appreciation of the humor I put into these stories. And finally, I would like to thank the first one to post a review to one of my stories: my dad Lee Bezotte, pastor of Mercy Vineyard Church in Moline, Illinois. Perhaps now is time for me to retire; my little brother and I are making a comic book series that is not fanfiction but original stories. But, if anybody wants another PSASBR story written by me, they can just ask me. Send me a plot idea and I'll put it into action. God bless you all!**


	2. Return of the Reaper

PlayStation All-Stars: Return of the Reaper

Plot and story by N. Kirby

Writing and editing by Coleiosis

The League of Heroes may have returned to the United States, in North America. But that did not mean that Egypt was free of this clouded mystery. Mister Grimm was not caught in the implosion from William Spark's bomb-box; he was indeed the Grim Reaper, never having the ability to die by a conspiracy as this.

After Mr. Grimm crawled out from under the wreckage of Needles' pyramid, he looked around and saw that Club Kid was nowhere to be found. Club Kid fell victim to the conspiracy of the bomb-box, and so he was sucked into the implosion that also sucked in Needles into nothingness.

"Forget about Needles!" Mr. Grimm said to himself as he headed for Tutankhamen's pyramid. "He was an utter fool! He made me serve him and wanted me to obey his every whim! Now that he is dead, he is no longer pharaoh of Egypt. I must take those rings from that false god. With them, I can rule the world!"

Once Mr. Grimm reached Tutankhamen's pyramid, he headed straight for Tuntara the Ring God. And yet, there was something sinister behind this. He went into the room and met Tuntara, who sat there on his throne as usual. "You are the Grim Reaper, I see," Tuntara spoke up once he saw Mr. Grimm enter the room. "What do you want with me?"

"You coward!" Mr. Grimm barked as he came closer and wrenched the special Rings from Tuntara's fingers. "You are not a god! You are a big lie!" He was right; he cut the head off the statue to reveal a man inside the open area of the statue's body. "You are merely a power-hungry Egyptian! The creatures of the Underworld forged the Rings, and you stole them for your own purposes!"

With that, Mr. Grimm killed the man inside the statue. Right when he did, he collected the man's soul, taking it into the Ring of Souls. "What an inspiring idea!" Mr. Grimm exclaimed in triumph. "It's about time that I went back to my old hobby: collecting the souls of the dead! I shall take them all and use them for my own purposes! I shall command the souls to do my every bidding and whim! I shall be ruler of all the world!"

Back at the United States, another disaster would occur associated with the great evil that would soon arrive. At the main house, Ratchet could not sleep after what Sasha said to him that night. "I can't believe it!" he thought to himself, a tear drenching his pillow. "This could have been our moment! This could have been the time for us to be together forever! And yet, Sasha said that we shouldn't! Do we really not know each other very well? Why?"

Those thoughts soon drifted away from his mind as he began to grow tired. "Can't stay up…" he thought as he began to fall into a deep sleep. "I've got to think of some way… somehow… Sasha must be mine…"

But he then fell asleep, now dreaming about another event from years ago. It was the time when Mr. Grimm had won a running of the Twisted Metal competition. He had come to see William Sparks, back then known as Calypso, to claim his prize as winner of that year's contest. As Mr. Grimm drove his motorcycle into William's underground garage, he saw William seated on his throne of broken car parts, also having that familiar-looking burnt face.

"Congratulations!" William spoke up, greeting Mr. Grimm as the winner. "You have won my contest! Welcome to my home!"

Underneath Mr. Grimm's helmet, the reaper sneered as he thought: "This is the moment that I've been waiting for! Time for me to get what I came here for."

"As you well know," William continued, "any prize you request will be yours."

"Greetings, Calypso!" Mr. Grimm replied in greeting. "I've come to get what I have always wanted. I am the winner, and YOU are my prize! I want your soul!" He pointed towards William, indicating that he wanted William's soul to satisfy his hunger. William's face grew pale as he recognized the bare bone underneath Mr. Grimm's jacket sleeve.

"No!" William screamed. "It's not time! We made a deal!"

"There will be no deal, Calypso!" Mr. Grimm replied. "You're coming with me!" With that, he tied William to his motorcycle and drove away, ready to devour the one soul that would satisfy him forever.

Ratchet woke up from the dream right there. He was now puzzled as to why he had a dream like that. "Why did it come to me so suddenly?" he wondered in his frightened mind. "Is William in danger? Has Mr. Grimm come back? Or… am I losing my mind?" Ratchet could not find the answer to this problem. This was certainly something that took a lot of thinking.

Later, Mr. Grimm arrived at the Underworld, meeting up with Mr. Ash and the other Underworld creatures. Once Mr. Ash saw that Mr. Grimm had retrieved all ten Rings, he pleaded him to give them back. "I created them!" he exclaimed in frustration. "You have no right to take what's not yours!"

"That's what YOU say!" Mr. Grimm replied. "I can take whatever I want, whether people like it or not! I can take ANYTHING! But what I want to take first are the souls of every single life-form on this pathetic planet! I'll take them all! Every single one of them! They will all be mine, and no one else's!"

"You can't say that! You cannot take the souls of us Underworld creatures. We are too powerful for you."

"Maybe so, but that won't stop me! Those helpless mortals will have their souls taken away from them! They won't know what hit them! I shall be ruler of this earth forever!"

After that fight with Mr. Ash, Mr. Grimm had gone to the same cemetery where he fought with Ratchet and his zombie father Kaden. It was also the place where Marcus Kane became good and was rid of his split-personality Needles (as seen from "Terror of the Tombs"). He stood right in the center of the place and raised the Rings on his fingers, harnessing their powers to bring dead ones rising out of their tombs, turning them into zombies. Two in particular that he noticed, Club Kid and Amanda Watts (former driver of the racecar Twister), came walking towards him in homage.

"So you want to serve me, eh?" Mr. Grimm said to them. "Well then. Come with me. We are going to prove to the world that I am now their master!"

Suddenly, Mr. Grimm felt something land on his right shoulder. He looked and saw that it was a zombie of the parrot that he once kept during the Twisted Metal contest that SWEET TOOTH held. "Ah, so my little pet has come back to me!" Mr. Grimm said as he pet the bird. "What memories this brings back to me. I remember the time when my little one had died…"

A flashback came to his mind as he thought about the time when he won that other contest that Sweet Tooth/Marcus Kane held. But Sweet Tooth himself did not speak; one of his little clown minion spoke for him. He said: "Captain Grimm! What a coincidence! You effortlessly defeated all of your opponents in our Twisted Metal tournament. By Sweet Tooth's kindness and generosity, he will grant you one wish as to what your heart desires."

Mr. Grimm did not speak either; the parrot on his shoulder did: "Captain Grimm demands to challenge Sweet Tooth in a sword fight. The winner earns the soul of the first one dead."

"Your wish is granted, driver," the clown minion replied.

And so the duel was on. Sweet Tooth and Mr. Grimm both had their swords ready for head-to-head combat. But it only lasted for about ten seconds before someone was already cut down. Mr. Grimm had to look down at the floor to see that Sweet Tooth had slashed at his parrot, now on the floor and bleeding. With the Ring of Souls on his finger, Sweet Tooth used it to receive the parrot's soul as his prize for the duel.

After Mr. Grimm's flashback ended, he said to his zombie parrot: "This I promise you: that won't ever happen again. I now despise Needles and all he stands for. He only cares about himself! But now it's time that I took one step closer to MY victory! I shall be the ruler of all!"

The next morning, the League of Heroes was awake and walked about the house, doing their usual when they are not fighting crime. But Ratchet was not awake; he was still very tired and was still in his bed. He could not keep his eyes open for very long and fell back asleep. But it only made things worse for him.

He had another dream, about another time when Mr. Grimm won another Twisted Metal contest. Mr. Grimm came to William on one of the rooftops of New York; he came to claim his ultimate prize for his domination in the demolition derby. "I'm here for my prize, Calypso," Mr. Grimm spoke up, eager to have what he came for. "I need souls, you must know. I'm a bit of a junkie, addicted to death. If I don't have another soul, I'll go hungry. People, they don't have a dignity of dying fast enough! Please, Calypso! Accelerate the process! Do whatever it takes to make them die faster!"

And so, William granted him that wish, causing the whole world to be plunged into one chaotic war. The death toll rose as the population fell, bringing the souls of the defeated ones to Mr. Grimm, who was starving. He had gained almost all of the souls of the people of Earth. The world was never the same after his horrific feast. But he soon became hungry again.

So he entered into the Twisted Metal contest of the year after, asking for one more thing. As he walked into William's office on board his blimp, William caught sight of him and said: "Mr. Grimm! You've snatched every soul on the planet. Now you want MY soul?!" William refused to give Mr. Grimm what he wanted, making the winner of the contest very mad and irritated at such a refusal.

Ratchet woke up from that dream. He was still puzzled as to why he was given that vision. "This is sickening me!" he thought, frustrated. "I can't take this anymore! It's been happening to me more often. I must go see a doctor."

As he headed downstairs, he began to think about another thing. "Perhaps that would be a better thing to do," he said aloud as he reached the end of the steps. "Perhaps it is what I should do best."

Marcus Kane was down there working on a new ice cream flavor for his business. He saw how depressed Ratchet looked and comforted him: "Why the long face, fella?"

"Marcus, I've been thinking…" Ratchet explained, "…I've been thinking about retiring from the League of Heroes."

"Come on, big head," Marcus replied. "You'd never leave. You need this kind of existence."

"We'd be lost without you," Sly Cooper spoke up as he entered the room with Angela Cross, begging Ratchet to stay.

"You're not serious, are you?" Angela said, looking very worried.

"Yes," Ratchet replied. "This next assignment may well be my last."

"I thought you were kidding," Marcus continued. "Hope you change your mind, Ratchet."

"I think you're just bored," Angela teased. "Wait till the next call to action."

"Perhaps," Ratchet continued. "Anyway, you guys go on and have your day. I'll mind the house."

"Well," Sly went on, "alright. But if you need us, just give the signal."

Later on in the day, Nathan Drake saw Ratchet sitting on the couch, thinking deeply to himself about retiring. Nathan went over to him and spoke up: "I couldn't help but overhear that conversation. I certainly hope you don't quit."

"It should probably happen," Ratchet replied, feeling a sudden freeze on his heart. "You may be one of the first people of this planet to greet me, but I perhaps I should say good-bye finally."

"You can't leave now," Nathan protested. "We all need you."

"But how? How can anyone need me if I'm always ending up in some sort of pain or trouble in a battle?"

"It happens to everybody. There's no need to be afraid, Ratchet. We can all be in the same boat sometimes. Life must go on."

Suddenly, before anyone could say anything else, Dart Feld burst through the door of the house, looking very distraught. It could be an emergency that needed to be attended to.

"What's going on?" Ratchet asked him. "Talk, man! What is going on out there?!"

"It was terrible!" Dart exclaimed. "A giant ship came and attacked all the villages! At my hometown, I saw cities collapse as many people died out there! Someone had murdered thousands of innocent people! I could not bear to see the places I love being destroyed."

Dart did not come here alone. Neptune, better known as Purple Heart, had come to tell of the story as well. "I was sleeping on my job," she spoke up, "until I gained this strange vision of all that happening. Also, following along with that, I had a dream when this skeleton has had his fill with the souls of innocent humans. He was much calmer after fulfilling his hunger, and he claimed that he would love to be free of his addiction with souls."

Ratchet thought about what Neptune said, then he said what all this would lead up to. "This could only mean one thing: Mr. Grimm! He's still out there! How could he have survived William's bomb-box? Perhaps as an undead reaper… that could be it! He can't die by normal means like Needles did. We've got to go stop him!"

"Hey!" everyone heard someone shout from the other room. They all turned to see Jak holding a mini-radio in his hands. "Will you all be quiet?! I'm trying to listen to this news bulletin!" As the news was spread, speaking through the radio, everyone eavesdropped on the newsflash being said.

And this is what was being told: "We are receiving a very strong report, saying that another city was under attack by a large pirate ship floating in the air. Nobody knows how it happened, but it also seemed as if the citizens had suddenly fallen down and died right where they were standing. Secret U.S. agents hid to see what was causing such a fantastic feat, and so they claim to have found a giant gun-like machine on the ship."

After hearing this, Ratchet thought about it for a moment. "I must go," he thought to himself. "If this is to be my most challenging battle, let it be so! I will stop Mr. Grimm in his scheme, or perhaps I'll DIE trying! Yet, I'll regret having met Sasha forever." He turned to face the others and gave the command. "Let's go, Dart. Every second counts. You can avenge Mr. Grimm about what he has done. Nathan and Sly, you come with me. You can do a lot of hunting to find out what's causing that big gun-machine to operate. Neptune, you're coming too; if you have had a vision similar to what I have had this morning, then our suspicions are correct. Let's go! We'll go and stop that captain!"

And so, the grand adventure began, as the League of Heroes went to stop Mr. Grimm in his diabolical plan.

Once they reached the streets of Los Angeles, they found that Mr. Grimm had already left with his giant pirate ship. "We're too late!" Dart said as they approached the city. "He's already escaped!"

"Not for long," Ratchet replied as he looked at his surroundings. "Although, I'm already freaked out about all these corpses lying around here." He was right; the bodies of Mr. Grimm's victims were lying around on the streets of Los Angeles. The silence of the city, along with the corpses, instilled fear into the hearts of our adventurers.

They looked around slowly until Nathan spotted something out ahead. "Look! Ahead of us! There's a light shining right at us. That must be a signal to summon us. Let's go see what it is."

"That's unusual," Sly came in as they walked closer to the light. "Stuff like that doesn't usually happen at a time like this."

"What do you mean?" Nathan asked.

"Think about it: this is a very dark afternoon, dark rain clouds are gathering, and a heavy fog is coating this silent city with dead corpses all around us."

"That is true. This is more powerful than Needles' work of murder."

Later, they came to the source of that particular light. They came across a boat dock, where only one big ship remained to be taken and used. This was the same boat dock that Sweet Tooth (Marcus with Needles controlling him) landed on when he escaped William's steamboat and freed himself from William's diabolical plan for the Twisted Metal competition (as seen in "Carnival of Destruction"). The heroes found out that it was Solid Snake who had shined a floodlight, using it as a signal to draw the heroes over to the boat dock, like moths being drawn to a light. "Glad you made it," Snake spoke up as the clouds in the sky filled the area with darkness. Snake had to turn on the red emergency lights so that everyone could see better.

"What's all this?" Nathan asked Snake.

"What do you think?! If you're chasin' after a pirate ship, you'll need to ride a boat yourself. Here's somethin' nifty for y'alls. You got yourself a ship." Snake showed the heroes the boat that they would be taking: a big ship for fishing and catching lobsters. "It's the only one big enough for y'all," Snake continued. "It's the only one I've got."

"We'll take it," Nathan said, accepting Snake's offer. "It may be the only one you have, but it will still suit us."

"Glad to hear you're satisfied. Now hop in quickly. You've got yourself a pirate ship to catch."

As everyone (except for Snake) got into the boat, Snake untied it from the dock's pole and let it drift away through the river. "Good luck!" he shouted as the boat went away into the fog.

As they drifted off, Nathan offered Ratchet something for protection. "Need a life jacket?" he asked him.

"No," Ratchet refused politely. "I'm fine. I'll do good."

"I don't think so. You said it yourself: you kept getting cut down because of your clumsiness. You'll need something to protect you on this mission. Even Clank is worried about you; he's your best friend."

Ratchet refused to reply. He remained silent for a long while. He felt like going down into the hold below, inside the ship, for another long rest. As he lied down, he began to receive another horrible vision. It was about Mr. Grimm again, shouting at him and saying the same thing over and over again: "I WANT YOUR SOUL! I WANT YOUR SOUL! I WANT YOUR SOUL!"

Ratchet tried to force himself awake, but he could not open his eyes. He was trapped in this nightmare, perhaps forever. But it was not forever; Sly came and woke him up. "Ratchet!" Sly shouted. "Mr. Grimm's ship is coming this way! We must hold it off as best as we can!"

The two heroes went back up to the boat's deck and spotted Mr. Grimm's pirate ship in the middle of the fog. "This is your finish!" Mr. Grimm shouted through the heavy fog that engulfed the scene. "I'll have your soul!" He went over to his special machine and introduced it. "Like this? I call it the Soul Taker, capable of killing many at one time so that I can take the victims' souls. All I need do is pull one trigger to make it fire one hundred mini-bullets at my victims. The bullets have very strong homing capability, aiming directly for the hearts of innocents. They kill the people so that I can swoop right in use the power of the ten Rings to collect their souls. The whole world shall be under my rule!"

"Don't count on it!" Ratchet said to Mr. Grimm. "No one's gonna die! NO ONE!" With that, Ratchet ran across the deck of his boat and leaped over the river below, landing onto Mr. Grimm's evil pirate ship. "You cannot take the life of an innocent!" he continued as he drew out his Omniwrench "I'll see to it that your addiction ends here and now! We'll stand and fight to the end! We'll fight for what is right! We'll fight for us!"

Mr. Grimm did not say anything after hearing what Ratchet said. Instead, he used the Rings' powers to bring out the souls of dead victims… as zombies! He first brought in the former driver of Thumper, Bruce Cochrane, and commanded him to shoot Ratchet down. But it was a failure; Ratchet dodged the bullets just in time, then threw Bruce down to the floor. He did not kill him though; he knew that Bruce was once a compassionate man who wanted peace in his neighborhood.

Mr. Grimm then brought in the evil architect Simon Whittlebone, driver of Mr. Slam. He first went over to Ratchet to pick him up, but Ratchet rolled right out of his arms and smacked him with his Omniwrench, sending him splashing into the water below.

Damien Coles, driver of Firestarter was next. He went over to Ratchet and grabbed him by the shoulders. He squeezed him very tight in his grip. But help was on the way; Dart came aboard Mr. Grimm's ship and wrenched Damien away. He threw Damien down into the water, "dousing out his flame."

Ratchet thought that Mr. Grimm had given up after sending three zombies. "Is that all you've got?!" Ratchet said, thinking that the League of Heroes had gained the upper hand. But the fight was not over. One certain nightmare soon came.

Mr. Grimm brought in Chairman Drek, who threatened to destroy the planet Veldin years ago. He was Ratchet's first enemy; and so when Ratchet saw that Drek came as a zombie, fear struck his cold heart. But Drek was a bit shorter that Ratchet, so it gave Ratchet the advantage to hit him hard with his Omniwrench… in that big head of his.

Mike and Stu, former drivers of Hammerhead, were next to attack Ratchet. They came and grabbed Ratchet by the arms, trying to tear them off his body completely. Neptune, who had now turned into Purple Heart, came in and tripped Mike and Stu to the ground. She then picked them up, using all the bare strength she had, and threw them towards Mr. Grimm like rag dolls.

Next in line of zombies were Captain Spears, former driver of Roadkill. He took out a machine gun and started to fire at Ratchet. Dart came in and deflected the bullets away with his sword, deflecting them back at Spears and downing him. "Let's hope this is the last one," Dart muttered as he saw Mr. Grimm raise the Rings again.

"I have not given up yet," Mr. Grimm said at last. "I still have a poor soul from years ago." With that, he summoned Scott Campbell, the former driver of Spectre, to come and fight.

But Scott refused and instead fought Mr. Grimm. "No!" he exclaimed in fear. "I'll never fight them! You cannot hurt them!"

"You've gone mad!" Mr. Grimm replied as he raised the Ring of Souls into position. "You shall go back to where you belong!" Scott then felt himself get sucked into Mr. Grimm's body, now eaten by the hungry reaper. "Heavenly!" Mr. Grimm exclaimed in satisfaction. He then raised the Ring again and brought in the gangster team that had once stolen Minion's tank. He brought in Apocalypse 9.

The gangsters charged straight at Ratchet, attempting to dive onto him and keep him down. They succeeded, but only for a short time. They trampled on Ratchet, trying to hammer him down with their fists. Dart came and witnessed what happened, filled with the horror that soon struck him. He simply could not let go of that one thought from earlier, watching his hometown get destroyed by the reaper's evil weapons.

"No!" Dart exclaimed in anger. "I will not let this happen!" With that, he began to make a fantastic transformation. He went over the edge with his emotions, turning into the Red Eye Dragoon. With his furious strength and big wings, he swooped right in and swept Apocalypse 9 off of Ratchet, throwing each gangster a different direction. "Now, Mr. Grimm," he continued, "let's finish this!"

Dart headed straight for Mr. Grimm, in his own madness, and prepared himself for this big battle. Worried about Dart, both Ratchet and Neptune chased after Dart and also confronted the reaper. "Hold it, Dart!" Ratchet said, stopping Dart in his tracks. "Don't get too mad. Let's see what should happen to Mr. Grimm next."

Mr. Grimm was ready to put this moment his own way. "Don't be so sure that you have won this battle," he said. "I still have my two slaves. Club Kid! Amanda! Get them!" Club Kid and Amanda came walking towards Dart, about to make the first strike.

But Dart was quick enough to use his wings and fly towards the two villains. He picked them up and carried them high into the air. He then held them over deep water and dropped them down there. He came back and faced Mr. Grimm, who was now over the edge with his rage.

"I have not given up just yet!" Mr. Grimm exclaimed. "I still have my machine! I can use this on you so that you could be my next seven-course meal. You're finished!"

"That doesn't look like your style," Ratchet replied. "I bet I know where that machine came from."

"Exactly! You are correct, my friend. I stole this from the Underworld as a lethal weapon against innocent bystanders. Once all the people in the world are dead, this machine will soon spark its magic and give me an infinite amount of souls to devour. I'll make a chaotic world of my own! I'll never run dry on souls!" He laughed evilly, thinking that he had gained the upper hand.

"Don't do this, Daniel!" Ratchet said. "You mustn't take the lives of innocents!"

"What did you just call me?!" Mr. Grimm was now more furious than ever. "How dare you call me by my real name?! It's not Daniel anymore! Call me Grimm!"

"But there is still good in you! I know it!"

"Shut up, fool! You have always been a thorn in my side ever since we met! I have always hated you, Ratchet! I have always hated your guts! Just looking at you makes me sick! I should have killed you when I had the chance! Now I'm going to settle this here and now! I will fight back ON MY OWN TERMS!"

Neptune stepped forward and continued the talk: "Even I worry about you, Daniel. You were just a young man when you died in your prime. And I'm sorry that it happened. I don't wish to fight you."

"Stop it!" Mr. Grimm shouted. "I'm tired of hearing you beg and plead! That's why I'm going to kill you right here on the spot! Now do me a favor and SHUT UP!" Suddenly, not knowing what he was doing, he pulled the trigger of his machine, shooting multiple bullets at Ratchet.

"RATCHET!" Neptune and Dart exclaimed in fear. Ratchet lied on the floor, hit hard from the machine that shot him and nearly ended his life.

"This is exactly what I mean," Ratchet thought to himself as he felt himself black out. "I can't go on like this. I mustn't let this happen! I'll fight it! I'll…"

Dart looked back at Mr. Grimm, now very angry for what he had done. "You have killed thousands," he hissed. "You have killed all innocents! Now you have crossed the line! Now you have gone too far! Now you have gone off the deep end! No one, and I mean NO ONE, shall kill my friends!"

As Dart started to come closer towards Mr. Grimm, Neptune jumped into his way to stop him. "No!" she exclaimed. "Don't!" But, blinded by his own rage, Dart knocked Neptune down to the floor by slashing her with his sword. The slash fatally injured Neptune, causing her to change back to her human form.

"That served you right, Neptune!" Dart said. "You're too soft on the reaper that had killed thousands in my homeworld! Now I must repay him with my great fury!"

Neptune tried to stay awake and warn Mr. Grimm about something. "That machine…" she stuttered, "…it's not good… It's…" But she could not finish her sentence, and so she fell unconscious.

As Dart watched Neptune black out, he suddenly felt a sense of sorrow and regret. "What have I done?" he said to himself, tears streaming down his face. Rain began to pour from the dark clouds that surrounded the scene, drenching everything it touched. Dart turned back to his normal self, now realizing what he had done to his friends.

"I'm surprised at you," Mr. Grimm said to Dart. "You have certainly gone insane like Ratchet has. There's the one thing that you have in common. But now, a gift shall be brought to you. I shall give you the one thing that every young soul would never ask for. And that is… DEATH!"

"No!" Ratchet said weakly, still lying on the ground and bleeding heavily. "You're the one who's gone insane. Think about it! You must control your actions. You must overcome this evil mind that's manipulated you. I know there is still good in you. Although, I should have realized that before coming here. I wanted to defeat you in this, but now things have changed."

Mr. Grimm staggered while trying to keep himself on his feet. What Ratchet had said there seemed to have changed him at first. But he tried to fight it. "No!" he said. "I won't be weakened by these emotions! I won't be like Marcus! Instead, I shall fight to the end!" And so, he walked over to Ratchet's dying body, wanting to finish him off forever. But when he was about to stab him with his sword, he stopped. He dropped the sword and felt himself get dizzy. "What's happening to me?" he said. "Why am I feeling so week?"

"TURN AROUND!" someone said from behind. Mr. Grimm turned to see the machine transform mysteriously. The machine grew arms, legs, a head, and a body. Everyone recognized the figure as the Underworld creature known as Black. "I AM THE ONE WHOM YOU STOLE!" Black said. "I AM THE ULTIMATE WEAPON THAT WOULD DESTROY ALL LIFE! MY MASTER GAVE ME THE ABILITY TO TRANSFORM INTO A LETHAL WEAPON OF DESTRUCTION! I HAVE ABSORBED YOUR POWER OF GRIMM; NOW I CAN USE IT TO DESTROY ALL PEOPLE OF EARTH! GOOD-BYE, WORLD! HELLO, DOMINATION! BUT FIRST, GIVE ME THE RINGS!"

"You used me!" Mr. Grimm barked at Black, starting to feel different. "You used my power only for your own purposes! I'll make you wish you were never created! I'll…" He suddenly stopped. He turned to see that Ratchet was still dying as he lied there on the deck of the ship. "Forgive me, Ratchet," he said, now feeling the good in him. "I shall do what I can. Please stay safe. Do me one favor: justice for my father!"

Right at that moment, Nathan and Sly came to scene. Dart felt a little irritated that they had arrived late. "What took you guys so long?!" he said.

"We wanted to activate those cannons," Nathan answered nervously. "But Snake did not provide us with gunpowder or ammo. It was a bust."

"You should have been here sooner! Poor Ratchet here is dying, and he needs your help!"

"Not again! Sly, you go get Neptune. I'll see what I can do with Ratchet." Nathan picked up Ratchet and brought him back to the ship that Snake gave them. Sly and Dart carried Neptune to the ship as well, leaving Mr. Grimm locked in his battle against Black.

Mr. Grimm looked at the Rings on his fingers, now feeling sorry for what he had done. "Ratchet was right," he said to himself. "May the souls be safe. No longer will I be the Grim Reaper! Just call me Daniel from now on."

While Daniel Grimm fought Black on the pirate ship, the good guys made it back to their own boat, heading back to Los Angeles' boat dock. Sly and Dart looked at Neptune and examined her. "Will she be okay?" Sly asked.

"She'll be alright," Nathan replied, looking sadly at Ratchet. "But Ratchet here is still hit hard. I don't think he'll make it. He's been hit with too many bullets. If we do an operation on him, we would completely tear him apart! There's only one thing that we CAN do, but I suddenly feel a sense of regret for doing that…"

**WE SHALL SEE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN OUR NEXT STORY: "MADNESS OF THE MACHINE!"**


	3. Madness of the Machine

PlayStation All-Stars: Madness of the Machine

By Cole Bezotte

**Ratchet's journal entry: "I remember dying. I remember the night when I revived Daniel Grimm from his own evil mind. That same night, I thought I felt myself get severed from something. I passed out when Nathan found me. It feels like only yesterday, but it actually happened over a week ago. Now I have woken up, one week later, only to find something new about me. Something that I never asked for."**

Ratchet woke up and found himself in a bed, in the Los Angeles Heath Department. He wondered why he was even there and why he was asleep for so long. He tried to move, but he could not life one limb of his body. "Have I been paralyzed?" he asked himself. "What the heck is going on here? Why can't I move?"

He turned and saw that Agent Shepard and Commander Mason were sitting near his bed. "Ratchet," Shepard spoke up, "it's a miracle you're still alive."

"How did I get here?" Ratchet asked, still not able to move.

"You were practically severed," Mason explained. "That machine, or Black as we should call it, sent those hundreds of bullets flying at you. You received too many of them in your body. A big swipe of those shells reacted like a sword, slicing across the middle of your body. The bottom half ended up getting cut off. We wanted to give you cybernetic legs, but there were also too many bullets in your top half as well. Your organs were failing miserably. And so, we had to make that noble choice. We completely… recreated you!"

"WHAT?!" Ratchet could not believe what he just heard. Shepard came over and pulled the sheet off of Ratchet, revealing the new bionic body that had been created on him. "Is my head the same?" Ratchet asked nervously.

"Sorry, lad," Shepard replied. "Your head has been recreated as well. But you can still remember things; we extracted the memory from your brain and placed it in a special memory bank in your new head. You still look the same as your dead flesh, now stop worrying."

"This is too unbelievable!" Ratchet kept saying, looking down at his new robotic self. "I can't go on like this! What if Sasha…" But he stopped himself right there in the middle of his sentence. He did not want to think about Sasha; he did not want to be reminded of when Sasha refused his offer of marriage.

"I'm sure Sasha will understand," Mason said, trying to comfort Ratchet. "But if she doesn't, just let it all go."

"Anyway," Shepard continued. "You will have enough time to get the hang of your cybernetic parts. All I need do is activate them, and you'll be all set. But there are times when you need to recharge your built-in battery; you cannot function forever, you know. I'll provide you with a supply of oil, as well as a charger, and a screwdriver to remove those limbs in case any damage is done."

"I understand," Ratchet answered, trying to calm himself. "Thanks for the help."

Meanwhile, at the main house, a deep depression settled in with the League of Heroes. Everyone knew about Ratchet's upgrade; everyone except for Sasha that is. And speaking of which, her father's rage has gone high in his head. "You wish to marry that coward?!" he exclaimed angrily. "That shall never happen! I shall find a better boy for you!"

"But dad…" Sasha tried to protest, tears streaming down her face. "He's the only one I love! You can't do this!"

"Enough! My patience has ended! Get out, before I THROW you out!"

Sasha had never heard her father speak to her that way. She did not know about Ratchet's incident, but her father did. Furiously, Sasha stormed out of the room and out of the house.

"You did the right thing," Phyronix heard someone speak behind him. It was a tall human with handsome hair, wearing a white suit.

"Jack Malone!" Phyronix said, welcoming the tall man. "Thank goodness you're here! I've been trying to call you. I'm glad you're here. Perhaps you can solve the mystery of my daughter. She cannot seem to let go of Ratchet at all! He's always foremost in her mind."

"I can help you," Jack replied. "After all, they don't call me 'the good psychiatrist' for nothing. Let us talk. Your daughter has always been rebellious, hasn't she? Has she always had her mind on the boy? Has she always craved Ratchet too much?"

"That could be it!" Phyronix said, distraught. "And yet, I don't know why she refused the offer for marriage. Now I remember! She did the right thing refusing Ratchet. Now that the two of them are done, I can think of a better boy for Sasha to take. It must work!"

A short time later, back at the hospital, Ratchet tested his new robotic body as he got a hang of the basic principal moves. "This is incredible!" he said to himself as he swung himself around. "I can control more joints at the same time then other people! I can hover over a short height. I can twist myself around. I'm practically invincible!"

But his gloating stopped. Right then, a voice spoke from the hall: "Don't kid yourself. Nobody's invincible." A man walked into the room, using cybernetic hands and feet for control. "I've experienced harsh difficulties with robotic parts."

"Who are you?" Ratchet asked. "Have we met before?"

"We have not," the man replied, "but you may have heard about me. My name is Axel. I've fought in the Twisted Metal contest for a few years, and I got more or less what I wanted as my prize. The last time I won, I asked for peace. But Calypso heard me wrong and instead gave me pizza. What a dunderhead that guy was!"

"Wait a minute!" Ratchet said. "I've heard of you. You're that guy who drove those two giant wheels."

"Yep. That's me, that poor sap. Look here: these cybernetic parts that we must use are something that we both have in common. Don't you see?"

"I see it clearly. Except, I'm a complete machine now. This is exactly what happened to Krista Sparks; after that car crash, she was rebuilt as a robot."

"I know. But it's a good thing that the doctors did not plant a bomb inside of you."

"That is true." The conversation went on for a while until it became nighttime. At 8:00 p.m., Axel left the room and left Ratchet to himself, still learning his abilities.

Much later, Ratchet saw this as the time to shut himself down. "I'll set the coordinates for me to wake up at 7:30 a.m.," he said to himself. "Agent Shepard left some instructions for me. Now I can use these abilities myself."

But before he could do anything else, he suddenly saw Minion climbing through the window and landing in his patient room. "You!" Ratchet exclaimed. "What are you doing here? What do you want with me?"

"I want Grimm!" Minion shouted. "Everyone knows you are his friend now."

"I don't know where he is," Ratchet said, trying to get out of this fight. But he was indeed saying the truth. "The last time I saw him, I was aboard his pirate ship."

"I want those Rings!" Minion continued. "And with them, IMMORTALITY! I have everything else now. Can you visualize me as a poor unappreciated creature, Ratchet? I am growing impatient! I do not want to waste time!" With that, he smashed a nearby clock hanging on the wall. "I want Grimm! Here! Now!"

Ratchet had not trained himself into using his new built-in weapons. And so, he fled the room in mute panic, running away from the threatening Minion. "Stop, Ratchet!" Minion shouted. "You can't escape me!" He chased after poor Ratchet down the halls of the hospital. "Don't be a fool, Ratchet!" Minion continued. "Call Grimm!"

But Ratchet kept going and soon escaped the hospital, running down the streets of Los Angeles. He looked around him and saw that the townspeople had their souls back, no longer threatened by the once-menace who used to be known as Mr. Grimm. Ratchet turned to look behind him and saw that Minion had broken out of the hospital and was heading straight for him.

Ratchet turned to run and started to head for the main house, but Minion was still hot on pursuit. The creature uprooted a tall tree and hurled it at Ratchet, trying to trip him down to the ground. Ratchet thought that the tree would surely trip him, and indeed it did. It brought him down to the ground, trapped underneath it.

Minion stepped closer to the downed Ratchet. "You better call Grimm!" he shouted once more. "Or I'll force you to!"

Ratchet then realized something about his new bionic body. He recalled something that Agent Shepard told him, and so he put it to action. Ratchet pressed his metallic palms against the tree on top of him and pushed hard, lifting it up into the air. He threw the tree right back at Minion, knocking him down to the ground. "Think twice, big head!" Ratchet taunted as he ran closer to the house. "I'm almost there," he thought to himself hopefully. "I can make it!"

He turned to see if Minion had gotten back up to his feet. Sure enough, he did, and was hot on pursuit again. Struck with fear, Ratchet ran to the backyard and prepared himself to get into the house. But before doing so, he took something out of his pants' pockets and slipped them over his robotic limbs. "Good thing Shepard provided me with these special fur sleeves," he thought. "I'll slip these over my cybernetic parts so that Sasha won't know what happened to me." Soon, he looked like his normal self again and headed inside the house, right before Minion could touch him.

"That idiot!" Minion thought as Ratchet hurried inside the house. "I missed him only by a tiny hair!"

Ratchet ran through the rooms of the house, looking to see if Sasha was still there. But he could not find her; he only found a gloomy-looking Nathan Drake. "Where's Sasha?" Ratchet asked him.

"She left," Nathan replied. "She is probably done with you. She just talked with her father. He does not want her to marry you."

"What the heck?!" Ratchet exclaimed. "I don't get it; Sasha's father wrote that note, saying that I am worthy of marrying her. But now he has all-of-a-sudden changed his mind?!"

"That's what I'm wondering. Why did he just change his mind right there? It's probably because he now knows what happened to you. And I must say, it's all my fault! I'm the one responsible for the idea of recreating you as a robot. That night aboard our ship, I did not want to see you die. I couldn't bear to look. I did not want this to happen so soon, like that day you brought back the real William Sparks. So I had to do something. I brought together everyone we knew to perform an operation, turning you into a robot. I'm sorry it happened, Ratchet. It was what we had to do."

"Why, Nathan?!" Ratchet screamed. "WHY?!"

"I did not want Sasha to know that you were dead. She would never forgive us for that deed. I'm sorry."

Suddenly, before anyone else could say anything, they heard a sudden crash that shook the entire house. Minion had burst through the house, driving his giant tank. He charged straight for Ratchet, but the Lombax took off and darted out of the house. He was soon wondering how he was running faster than usual. It was because of his strong cybernetic transistorized legs. "What has become of me?" he thought. "I don't want to be like this! I want my normal self back!"

Along the way, he saw Sasha standing in the middle of the streets of Los Angeles, deep in thought about her broken romance with Ratchet. "It happened so suddenly," she thought to herself. "Now we may never see each other… forever!"

While walking on the sidewalk, Sasha bumped into William Sparks, who had just come back from the First National Bank of America, paying for the damages done by his Twisted Metal contest. "Pardon me," William spoke up.

"William!" Sasha exclaimed in fear and anxiety. "Where is Ratchet? Is he alright?"

"I'm sure he is," William replied. He tried hard not to reveal the truth about Ratchet now being a robot.

"But he's gone! What happened to him? Tell me, William! Don't you understand? I love him! I love him, William!"

"And you've kept it a secret?" William asked.

"Yes!" Sasha sobbed, tears on her face again. "Yes! You've got to find him, William!"

"There, there," William said, comforting Sasha. "He is alright. I'll go find him. In the meantime, you go home and get some rest. You need it. You look flushed."

"Very well. I'll go," Sasha said, leaving the area. "I suspect Ratchet's in big trouble, and I want to help."

After overhearing the conversation, Ratchet began to feel very excited with the truth that Sasha had now said. "You stupid shy fool, Ratchet!" he said to himself. "You didn't dare even imagine it! But she does! She loves me!"

But Ratchet had forgotten about Minion, who was still chasing after him with his tank. "The Lombax's death will bring Grimm even quicker!" he thought to himself as he drove the tank around the city.

Ratchet could not resist thinking about Sasha's lovely eyes and gentle smile. As he ran straight down the road, he thought: "She shall be mine! I shall take her hand forever!" As he ran, he saw that Sasha was standing right in the middle of the street, not noticing anything that was going on around her. "SASHA!" Ratchet shouted as he grabbed her and carried her down the street.

"Ratchet!" Sasha exclaimed, surprised. "You've come back for me!"

"No time to explain! We've got to get you away from Minion! He's coming after us!" As he ran, carrying Sasha, he thought about the precautions for this adventure. "I mustn't use my special abilities too hard," he thought. "I don't want Sasha to suspect about something suspicious. She must never know about the new me."

Minion charged his tank straight at Ratchet and Sasha, still demanding that the Rings be brought to him. "Summon Grimm, Ratchet!" he shouted. "It's the only chance for you to live! Call him, Ratchet! Or pay with your life!"

The chase went on as they ran deeper into the city. "Ratchet!" Minion continued shouting. "My fury grows!"

"Ratchet!" Sasha called out as they came to an alley. "Could this be where we hide?"

"It's a dead end," Ratchet said, putting Sasha down. "There's no way out!"

Minion called out: "You fool! Why sacrifice your life and hers to protect Grimm?!"

"Grimm is… dead!" Ratchet lied, thinking that his bluff will pay off. "Now the Rings are powerless!"

"You lie!" Minion screamed. "LIE! Those Rings were forged by the Underworld; only I can use them as well as my master. Give them to me now!"

But William was nearby, watching the scene unfold before his very eyes. He quickly took out a mini-pistol and fired, blinding Minion by the gun's flash. It created a diversion for Ratchet and Sasha to get past Minion and head for the parked car Spectre. "Get in, quickly!" Ratchet commanded as he and Sasha hopped in the car. He drove off, trying to still get away from the creature. But Minion was fast enough to catch up to them.

"Why can't we fight them?" Sasha said eagerly.

"We don't have a weapon," Ratchet lied. "There's nothing we can do right now." Inside his mind, he thought that it was right for him to say that lie because he did not want to reveal any of his built-in weapons.

Minion charged closer to the couple, shouting: "Prepare for your eternity in fire!"

But Ratchet had an idea: he would use his own battery to increase the power of his car. The more energy he fed the vehicle, the faster it drove. Soon, they came across the main boat dock, where the final phase of the battle happened. Ratchet quickly grabbed Sasha again and jumped out of the car before it leaped splashdown into the river.

Confused by the action that Ratchet pulled, Minion then became the victim of the deep waters. He was too distracted by seeing Ratchet pull his plan that he did not realize what he was doing. His vehicle hit the water, drowning deeper and deeper into its deep embrace. As he sunk in, he thought: "I cannot get out! If I touch the water, my fiery powers will be doused out! I'll be stuck in my own tank forever! I cannot get out! Now I'll never get my hands on the Rings! Curse you, Ratchet!"

On the deck above the river, Sasha was put back down, surprised about Ratchet's heroic deed. "Ratchet…" he stuttered. "That was very brave of you! I never knew…"

Ratchet did not listen to the rest of Sasha's sentence. His mind was too focused on his built-in battery. "I gave so much of my energy to the car," he thought. "I have to recharge my battery soon. But I must settle things with Sasha first."

Right then, Sasha's father came to the scene, with Jack Malone at his side. "Ratchet!" he said, surprised. "That was magnificent! I never knew that you would be better! Perhaps I have been too nasty towards you both. And so, to prove it, I will make an agreement. I will allow you two to marry each other, becoming husband and wife forever!"

Inside, Jack Malone mysteriously thought something very dark. "That utter fool!" he thought. "This is not what I wanted! If only they knew who I really am…"

Sasha was excited after hearing her dad say the agreement. "Ratchet!" she exclaimed happily. "Do you know what this means? We'll be together forever! Just the two of us!"

"It is nice to hear that," Ratchet replied, looking rather gloomy. "But I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" Sasha said as he smile turned into a frown.

"Think of it: we've been together for only a short time and we're already obsessed with each other. I'd rather wait for a longer time. I'll have this discussion with you later." With that, Ratchet walked away, leaving Sasha behind with a broken heart. "I don't want to do this," Ratchet thought as he left. "I can't let the marriage happen. I don't want Sasha to be in love with a cyborg like me! I won't marry her. I will no longer love her."

As Jack watched Ratchet walk away, he gloated in triumph. "At last!" he thought. "They are no longer in love! I have succeeded! Now Sasha will be left battered and bleeding on a cold, damp, and dirty pavement!" He laughed, impressed by his own metaphor. "This will be a day to remember! Just wait till the world hears the news that NEEDLES IS BACK!"

**NEXT TIME: RATCHET BRINGS THE WORLD CLOSER TO DOOM!**


	4. Chaos Galore

PlayStation All-Stars: Chaos Galore

By Cole Bezotte

Sequel to "Madness of the Machine"

That same night when Ratchet refused the marriage offer, Sasha had felt herself in very deep depression. As she stood in her dark room, she thought to herself sadly: "Why did he refuse so? Why?! We could have been together forever! But instead, he refused so! WHY?!" But Sasha could not find the answer. She sat on her bed, sobbing about how things became worse with her relationship between her and Ratchet.

Meanwhile, Ratchet sat on his bed at the main house, thinking about her relationship with Sasha now ended. "I had to leave her," he thought to himself. "I at first listened to her conversation with William, then I suddenly got overexcited. I went way over my head, thinking that we would be together forever! But I was wrong! She cannot love me; not when I am like this! She cannot marry a robot like me! I'm through with her! She wouldn't bear to be with me, a robo-failure!"

Ratchet climbed onto his bed and tore his fur coat off his chest. He then reached into his cybernetic chest and set his "self-clock" to wake him up at 7:30 a.m. He shut himself down, letting himself sleep without any problems.

But he was only able to sleep for a short moment before someone woke him up. It was Angela Cross, turning Ratchet back on and telling him about an emergency. "It's Pupuru!" she exclaimed in fear. "She's gone! I can't find her anywhere!"

"If you say you can't find her," Ratchet replied, assuring her about fulfilling a mission. "Then I'll go search for her for you!"

"But there's more! I found some blood stains! They must be hers! She must have been kidnapped! Or KILLED!"

"Hold it, Angela! I'll find her. I promise you that!"

Later, Ratchet went to Pupuru's house, only to see a clue about her strange disappearance. With his built-in infra-red vision, he scanned the place and found something familiar-looking. He not only saw blood stains on the welcome mat outside, but he also found an ice cream cone on the sidewalk, melting from the heat of the hot sun. While the ice cream was melting, Ratchet heard a familiar-sounding evil laughter coming from it. "That's the sound of Needles' Napalm Cones," he thought as he watched the once-frozen desert melt. "It can't be! Has Needles returned? Or…"

Ratchet stopped himself from thinking about it. "That can't be right," he thought. "Needles turned into a dragon and died from William's bomb-box. He could not have come back from the dead. Or maybe…"

Later, Ratchet walked further throughout the Oboro forest, finding more clues to Pupuru's disappearance. And indeed he found another thing. "The pieces are falling into place," he said to himself as he walked along. "Someone is holding Pupuru for a ransom as a lure to get me into a trap. Otherwise he would never leave so obvious a clue."

Ratchet found something on the ground. It seemed more deadly than he suspected. "Needles' glove!" he said as he scooped up the second clue. "I must be getting closer!"

Much later, Ratchet arrived at where the clues end. It was the same clock tower that Sweet Tooth once used as his base for hosting his Twisted Metal competition. It was the same one that William Sparks was kicked out of, being replaced by Sweet Tooth. "I thought that thing crumbled down because of the first warp explosion," Ratchet thought as he came closer to the clock tower. "I guess another warp explosion must have put it back together. I must find out what is going on!"

After entering the tower, it was at first very dark in the main room. But then, as quick a flash of lightning, the windows' blinds mysteriously came down and put out the light from outside. "What a night!" Ratchet thought as he looked around. "I'm at a place that was once held for a Twisted Metal contest, everything in this room is still very clowny, now it's pitch-black in here, but our culprit is nowhere to be found. Why doesn't he show himself?"

Suddenly, the one he is looking for finally shows himself. Ratchet recognized the figure as Jack Malone, Phyronix's "trusted advisor." "We meet again, Ratchet!" Jack spoke up, his face hidden from the dark-cloaked room. "Closer, Ratchet! Come taste the might of my Napalm Cone!"

"Napalm Cone?!" Ratchet wondered. "Could it be—?"

"Of course, Ratchet!" Jack said as he came closer towards the Lombax. "I am Needles! And you are DEAD!" With that, Needles threw his Napalm Cone at Ratchet's chest, draining Ratchet's built-in battery and burning most of his gears. "You shall join your friend Pupuru at death's door!"

Ratchet staggered to the floor and fell down, steam coming out of his main functioning system. "Ha!" Needles exclaimed triumphantly. "I expected more fight from my highly-overrated opponent! You have been the most difficult to kill out of all the 98-pound weaklings I've met. But now your end is here and now!"

"Wait!" Ratchet pleaded, stopping Needles before he can attack again. "How did you come back? You're supposed to be dead!"

"I WAS dead, Ratchet," Needles explained. "It was quite simple. While Mr. Grimm was harnessing the power of the ten Rings, rising zombies from the dead, he also accidentally brought back me. Even though he had a burning hatred for me, he did not know that I was to return as a zombie as well as my good servant Club Kid. I still am a zombie, but my mind is steadier than any other zombie's.

"Look here: I have created a new machine that will bring split-personalities out from every living person on this pathetic planet! People have a secret grudge that they keep in their minds, but they just don't dare to reveal what they are holding against their loved ones. And so, I am going to bring them out! Even your ex-girlfriend Sasha will have her grudge against you coming right towards you! She'll hunt you down and have revenge on you for refusing marriage! How does that make you feel?" Needles laughed evilly in triumph.

"Now I know why Sasha's father had doubted me at first," Ratchet realized. "It's because of YOU! You tricked him into hating me!"

"Precisely what I intended to do!" Needles continued. "But because of his soft side, my plan is ruined. But THIS plan won't fail for sure! It shall succeed!"

Meanwhile, Daniel Grimm had returned to Los Angeles after a week's journey through the river. After getting off his pirate ship, he headed straight for a nearby chapel to warn the people of a new danger that lurked in the shadows.

Inside that particular chapel, Preacher, Commander Mason, and Agent Shepard were discussing about Ratchet's terms. "His heart is blackened!" Preacher said as they went deeper into the conversation. "He trusted that false god Tuntara! He should not have! He has broken the first Commandment: 'Thou shalt not worship any other gods besides Him, the One and Only God!"

"But there's been a terrible mistake," Mason protested. "He didn't know that Tuntara was a real god."

"Is that so?" Preacher continued to complain. "He has also broken the second Commandment: 'Thou shalt not make an idol of any kind! He has broken that rule as well!"

"Calm down, big fella!" Agent Shepard stopped Preacher. "Ratchet didn't know. If we are to sort out this problem, we have to destroy our main enemies once and for all! We have already stopped Needles; we have brought back William Sparks, Marcus Kane, and Daniel Grimm. The only enemies we need to worry about now are the creatures of the Underworld, led by Mr. Ash. They are the only ones left."

"They may be," Preacher replied. "But Ratchet could be associated with them! HE has to be destroyed as well!"

Right then, Daniel Grimm burst through the doors of the chapel and went straight to a nearby sink to wash the evil makeup off his face. After washing up, he ran out of the chapel to head straight for the main house, looking for Ratchet. But once Daniel arrived, he found that Ratchet was nowhere to be found. Daniel was told that Ratchet was off on his mission to look for Pupuru. And so, Daniel set off to find the clock tower that Ratchet was kept as captive of Needles.

Meanwhile, back at the clock tower, Needles explained more of his plan to Ratchet. "You should have known," Needles said as he went deeper into explanation. "Sasha would never act like that. That was not Sasha at all!"

"What do you mean?" Ratchet asked while still lying on the floor. "If that wasn't Sasha, then who was it?"

"It was a new friend of mine. His name is Mortimer Scharf, former driver of the vehicle Shadow. After he came back as a zombie from the power of the ten Rings, I put him under my hypnotic power. I hypnotized him to take the form of Sasha, pretending to be the girl whom you once knew. While that was going on, I killed Sasha right in her room! And now, she's standing right behind you!"

Needles was right; once Ratchet turned to face the door only to see a living nightmare. There was Sasha, now a zombie, holding a machete in her hands. Her face was now very grim, bloodshot, and pale. She walked towards Ratchet and threw the machete down at him. But Ratchet dodged out of the way and began to run out of the room. "This can't be happening!" Ratchet thought to himself as he ran out of the clock tower, feeling very miserable. "Not my girlfriend!"

After Ratchet left the room, Needles walked over to his new machine and activated it. "Now it's time that things began to roar with gore!" he exclaimed triumphantly as he pointed the machine out the window. He fired a shot from it, shooting a random pedestrian who walked through the streets of Los Angeles. Soon, the man began to feel very dizzy, then coming back to his senses seconds later only to see another version of himself. The other version was his split-personality, now alive and completely flesh.

"It worked!" Needles said, smiling big about his success. "A perfect split-personality on the first try! I shall conquer all! This world will be mine!"

Meanwhile, once Ratchet exited the clock tower, he bumped into Daniel Grimm, who had something urgent to say. "Ratchet!" Daniel spoke up. "I have something important to tell you! You must help this city!"

"How can I?" Ratchet responded. "I am powerless! I lost my girl! She's gone… forever! I can't bring her back to me! It's no use!"

"I am deeply sorry that it happened, Ratchet. But there's something I need to tell you. Look around you!"

As Daniel pointed Ratchet out to what was going on, Needles had committed the most diabolical murder ever. While in the clock tower, he walked over to the table where Pupuru's weak body was placed. He drew out his machete and grinned while looking in its reflection. "What a great triumph this is!" Needles said as he aimed the machete in the vital spot of Pupuru's body. "This baby will cut through anything like a hot knife through cheese!"

And so, it began.

Needles raised the machete high and, with a mighty swing, brought it back down to… KILL PUPURU!

Back outside, Daniel pointed Ratchet out to the zombies coming out of the river, from the time when they fought Ratchet aboard Daniel's pirate ship. As they approached the city even farther, Needles' machine began to fire at them, causing even the ZOMBIES to gain evil split-personalities and attack the city. So much chaos was engulfing the entire planet, it began to expand the population of the whole world a thousand-fold.

"We can't go on like this!" Daniel continued. "We need to use these Rings now!" He still held the ten Rings on his fingers, indicating to Ratchet that there must be a way to change it all.

"I'm sorry, Daniel," Ratchet said, tears coming from his eyes. "I don't know what to do!"

"Don't give up on me, man! You're not a wimp! You've got to think of something! In the day, you've been fixing starships like nobody's business. I KNOW you can do something!"

"Hold on, Daniel! Let me think!" Ratchet staggered back and forth with his weakened mechanical body.

"If we're going to change all this, now is the time!" Daniel kept urging. "We need to help! If the League of Heroes can fight off this chaos, you can too."

"I don't know! I can't think straight!"

"Don't panic, man! Think of something! I know you can!" With that, Daniel gave Ratchet the Rings to slip on his fingers. "Here. See what you can do with these. I'll go get the army." Daniel ran off, leaving Ratchet alone with the Rings to use.

"He's right," Ratchet thought to himself as he looked at the Rings. "I've got to think of something! I have to change all this!" He thought over the plan of what to do. "Fine! That'll be it! First, I'll go back inside the clock tower and save Pupuru out of there. Then, I'll confront Needles and use one of these Rings to destroy his machine. Finally, I'll fight off the zombies and the split-personalities, and it'll all be over."

"No…" said a voice from behind. "It's not over…"

Ratchet turned to see what was behind him. It was another Lombax who looked just like him. But then, Ratchet realized who this figure really was: it was his dead flesh, now a zombie! "No!" Ratchet thought as he stared in fear at his walking corpse. "This can't be happening!"

The zombie stared grimly at Ratchet. "You replaced me!" he roared. "You left me dead! You shall pay!"

Ratchet began to run as fast as his bionic legs could carry him. But the zombie was hot on his trail, following him everywhere he went. "This is ridiculous!" Ratchet thought as he ran through the streets of Los Angeles. "I'm being chased by my own flesh and blood! That's my dead body, while I am now a cyborg. He's angry at me. Or… am I angry at myself? He's me! I'm fighting myself!"

Once Ratchet came to a corner of a building, he was trapped. His zombified body came walking straight towards him. He thought that he had to do something fast. But first, he had to see how everyone was making out with the battle the world was putting up. The League of Heroes had no luck fighting off their own split-personalities. They were fighting their own power and abilities; they were fighting against themselves!

Inside his head, Ratchet thought as he cried: "Why did all this happen?! Why is the world in a war that would last forever?! Why can't all this change?! I want it to change! I must change everything!" Suddenly, his zombified form grabbed him by the neck, squeezing him really hard. But as the zombie squeezed him, Ratchet had an idea that would certainly never fail.

"That's it!" he thought. "I've had enough of this endless chaos! It's time that things changed here and now! I have no other choice… BUT TO RESTART ALL OF TIME!" With that, he clamped all ten Rings together and created the biggest and greatest warp explosion that ever existed. But it only existed for a very short time; all of time itself was restarting. "I have to do this," Ratchet thought as a bright white light engulfed him. "I need to restart time so that I can change the past! It's the only way."

Once the light faded, Ratchet found himself in a beautiful lush green forest. "This must be the start of time itself!" he thought as he looked around. "Now that it has restarted, everybody I know will not be born until thousands of years from now. Only I am still standing because I used the Rings to cause all this. Although, the creatures of the Underworld are still around; they existed when the world started. The world! I forgot all about it! This is the start of the world itself!"

Ratchet looked at his built-in "self clock" and gasped as he read what year it was. "The year now is 6000 B.C.! Wow! It's the beginning! It's the beginning of EVERYTHING!" But right at that second, the number 6000 on his clock reduced down to 4000. "Somehow, time will fast-forward for me to get to the future sooner. It will only happen sometimes, taking me to certain areas of the past. Brilliant! Well, now I should be on my way. Look out, world! Ratchet is here to change everything!"

As Ratchet took off through the land, he began to think again: "Although, I don't know how long this is going to take. It might take me an ETERNITY to change it all. But who knows? It might happen so soon."

After walking for about a half hour, he stopped to look around him. He soon spotted a big wave of water coming right at him. He was at the time of the Great Flood. "My end has to happen so suddenly?" he thought as the water almost touched him.

But the danger ended so quickly. The self clock now read as 3500 B.C.

"Wow!" Ratchet thought as he looked around him. "What timing! I was almost swallowed up by the wave alive. But now, what's this?" He saw that the land was now a giant sheet of ice. He was now in the Ice Age. "No wonder they call this part of time the Ice Age! It's extremely cold out here! I read that this could possibly be the cause of the dinosaurs' extinction! Boy, do I love history! But this is still going to be a long journey back to the future. I shouldn't worry, though. After all, I need to change things in the past in order to change what is left of the future."

Ratchet's hopes of changing the past had reached the ears of the creatures deep down into the Underworld. Mister Ash overheard what Ratchet hoped to do. And so, he commanded his fellow minions for a meeting. "Ratchet still has the Rings," Mr. Ash spoke up once the meeting began. "He shall not stay alive! We shall find and destroy him, then take the Rings back for our own purpose! Let us go and hunt the Lombax so that WE can change the past OUR way!"

And so, Ratchet's journey throughout all of time has just begun!

**NEXT TIME: RATCHET ADVENTURES THROUGH ANCIENT EGYPT, COMPETES IN THE EARLY OLYMPIC GAMES, AND MEETS CLEOPATRA!**


	5. Deeper into Time

PlayStation All-Stars: Deeper into Time

By Cole Bezotte

Sequel to "Chaos Galore"

Later, after Ratchet watched the remaining snow melt, ending the Ice Age, he went on with his long adventure to change all of time.

He looked at his self clock, and it read that the year was 2575 B.C.

"I must be getting close to another certain event," Ratchet thought as he walked on through the plains of Egypt. "If I'm here in Egypt, then I must be near the false god Tuntara. I must stop those Egyptians before they finish the sculpting!"

And so, Ratchet ran straight towards the pyramid where the false god statue was being forged. He remembered exactly where it was, remembering the time later on in the future when he trusted the false god into bringing back his soul. Although the pyramid looked more newer than when he last saw it, he recognized it as where Tutankhamen was buried later on in time.

He reached the pyramid, then ran through the rooms to find where the statue was being carved. And find it he did. He found two Egyptians putting the finishing touches to the statue. "There!" one of the men spoke up after finishing all the hard work. "It is finished! We finally have a god to look towards in our time of need! Let us bow to it!"

But the other man protested: "I do not know if we can. How can we look to this idol if it is not alive? It must come to life! We need to give it power! And we shall find it now!"

Before the two men could make a move, Ratchet burst into the room and started to attack the statue. "Not if I can help it, gents!" he exclaimed. "This is what I think about your new 'hero!'" With that, he grabbed the statue by the neck and pulled very hard at it.

"You fool!" one of the men exclaimed in fear. "You aren't human! What manner of creature are you!"

"Not that anything should interest you," Ratchet replied as he pulled harder.

"Don't pull our god down!" the other man screamed. "We need him more than ever! Oh, Tuntara! Hear our prayers! Hear our cries!"

"This is not a real god to obey!" Ratchet said as he pulled the statue all the way down from its throne. It came down with a big crash, shattering into huge chunks of stone.

"Run!" the men shouted as they ran out of the pyramid to warn the people of Egypt. "We must warn King Khufu!"

"Khufu!" Ratchet thought. "He must be the king of Egypt in this particular time period. I must get away before he sees me! If I disappear quickly enough, the men will think that they just saw a mere hallucination. My timing must be perfect!"

But before he could do anything, someone else approached Ratchet, stopping him in his tracks. It was Mr. Ash, seeking vengeance upon him for restarting all of time itself. "I found you!" Mr. Ash spoke up. "I was on a roll with destroying the world until you used the Rings to reset time! Now it's my turn to take back the chances that were once mine!"

"So," Ratchet responded, "you've followed me all the way over here, eh? You know that I reset all of time, eh? You're still wearing that fancy suit, eh?"

"Enough taunting!" Mr. Ash barked. "I'm going to finish you off for good!"

But before any of them could make an attacking move, they heard the voice of the two Egyptians that were there earlier. Ratchet and Mr. Ash ran off to hide somewhere, allowing the two men to enter the room with King Khufu, the ruler of Egypt at that particular time. "Well?!" Khufu demanded. "Where is this creature?!"

"He was right here!" one of the men said, trembling in fear. "I swear I saw him!"

"You both are completely mad! Guards, execute these two immediately!"

While Khufu gave his command, Mr. Ash ran around the outside of the pyramid, looking for Ratchet. "I can't find him anywhere!" he thought to himself. "He must have fast-forwarded through time. I must catch up to him!"

Later, Ratchet's self clock read that he was currently at the year 776 B.C. "Wow!" he thought. "I made such a huge jump through time! I must be in ancient Greece now." And in Ancient Greece he was. He looked around to find himself inside a coliseum, where the early Olympic Games were held. He had to look behind him to find two chariots running right towards him. He ducked down to the ground to avoid getting run over by the chariots.

One of the chariot riders looked behind him and wondered what Ratchet was doing in the middle of the racecourse. "What is that thing?" he thought. "How did it get here in the first place?"

Someone walked over to Ratchet and picked him up off the racecourse. He carried him to a room where towels and clothing are provided. After setting Ratchet down, the man asked him some questions. "Who are you?" he spoke up. "What are you? How did you get here? Why are you here?"

"Relax, man!" Ratchet replied. "Keep your shirt on! Nobody's perfect. Anyway, my name is Ratchet. I don't desire to cause any damage to Greece."

"I see," the man said, trusting Ratchet. "If you can prove yourself trustworthy, I won't have to execute you. My name is Agape. I am the overseer of the Olympic Games here. Are you here to compete?"

"Compete?" Ratchet was surprised that he was already being trusted to do something like this. "That sounds very swell, Agape. Perhaps it won't hurt to stay around and play in your games for a while."

"Very well then. So it is agreed. You shall compete after our chariot race is finished. Now hurry up and get undressed. You shall compete in the boxing challenge."

"You mean I have to get undressed completely?"

"Precisely! After all, people need no weight to slow them down when moving around."

"No way am I going to compete nude! Perhaps some simple workout shorts will do my fitting."

"Very well then. If you say so."

Ratchet prepared himself for the ultimate boxing challenge of the first Olympic Games. Once he met his opponent, he gasped to see who it was. It was Mr. Ash, completely naked. "Well, look who it is!" Mr. Ash spoke up as he approached Ratchet.

"Don't count on winning this, buster!" Ratchet replied. "After all, it will be very easy to win; I can hit you hard in the open groin if I want to."

Embarrassed by the remark that Ratchet made, Mr. Ash quickly put on some workout shorts. "This will suit my benefit," he thought as he put them on. "What a major embarrassment! I hope I don't lose."

The fight began. And so, the battle was on!

The two competitors exchanged punches and blows on one another, inflicting pain upon each other. It was mostly in the face that they punched each other. The harder they hit each other, the more damaged their faces became. Greeks from all sides of the ring called out to the competitors: "Defense! Hit him harder! Knock him down!" It encouraged the two boxers to fight even harder than before.

At one point, Mr. Ash gave Ratchet a giant blow on the head, blurring Ratchet's vision and making him very dizzy. Ratchet stumbled against the ropes of the ring, while Mr. Ash came closer and closer to finish him off. But Ratchet did not give up; he quickly went back up fully to his feet and swung really hard up Ash's face, giving him a black eye.

Mr. Ash still stood where he was, not letting that punch bring him down. "You don't let me with just one punch!" he said as he rubbed his damaged face.

"Maybe TWO can!" Ratchet responded as he hit Mr. Ash again. Ash was brought down to the floor, dazed from the experience of boxing. "Let that be a lesson to you," Ratchet continued. "Even demons fail!"

After the fight was over, Agape congratulated Ratchet on his success of the game. "You now receive a medal for your courage and bravery!" Agape said as he shook hands with Ratchet. "You did very well for a short one."

"It was nothing," Ratchet replied. As he walked into the room where he left his clothes, Ratchet began to think deeply about when he met his girlfriend Sasha… as a zombie.

"Why am I still thinking about this?" Ratchet thought. "Why am I still thinking about Sasha? She's gone! Wait a minute! I clean forgot all about it! Now that I reset time, Sasha isn't born yet. Imagine: if I was able to go to Marcadia, I would see her as a baby. I would have to fast-forward through time again. But I still need to change things with everybody else before doing so."

As Ratchet was getting his clothes back on, he saw that the Rings were still there for him. "Agape must be more generous than I thought," he thought as he put the Rings back on his fingers. "He left these here for me. Now, it's time for me to go on through time."

Mr. Ash walked into the room to retrieve back his clothing. "That really sucked!" he said, angry about his defeat in the boxing ring. "In all the Underworld, I am the most powerful! And yet, I let myself get defeated by a tiny little Lombax! I let myself get destroyed by a 98-pound weakling!"

"A pity you get no applause," Ratchet taunted. "You're washed up, mister! You're a has-been!"

"Don't taunt me!" Mr. Ash barked. "After all, I am the master of the Underworld! All of those hungry creatures are hungry for flesh… YOUR flesh!"

"Don't count on it. Time for me to fast-forward." And so, Ratchet went through time again, landing in the year 49 B.C. "That's another big leap!" Ratchet thought as he landed somewhere very familiar-looking. "I'm back in Egypt. My, how things have changed."

But, as Ratchet walked around the place, he spotted red-colored creatures quickly approaching the city. "The Underworld creatures!" Ratchet thought as he drew out his Omniwrench. "I never thought that they would attack. They too probably know that I reset time."

"Ratchet!" came an angry scream from Minion. "My fury grows! You shall pay the consequences! You shall pay with your life!"

Ratchet readied himself for when Minion would come at him. But he did not want to face him alone. Ratchet was sure that he would be torn to pieces mercilessly by the furious Minion. "I must find some way to fight him off," Ratchet thought as he ran off to a giant temple. "Perhaps the answer lies in that temple. Maybe I can find some help in there."

But once Ratchet stepped foot in the temple, two Egyptian guards came and knocked him down to the floor. "Halt!" one the guards spoke up. "Halt and be recognized! Who are you?!"

"More accurately…" the other guard said. "…WHAT is he? What kind of little creature is this?"

As Ratchet got back up to his feet, he protested against the guard's remark. "I don't like to be called 'little.' After all, I am not a demon like those creatures coming after these people."

"So you are not like those molten ones?" asked the first guard.

"Exactly. I'm from somewhere else."

"Then you shall follow us. Perhaps the queen will know what to do to you." The guards led Ratchet throughout the halls and rooms of the temple, heading for the throne of Cleopatra.

"I'm in one of the biggest thrills of my life," Ratchet thought as he entered the throne-room. "I get to meet Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt." When he looked up at the throne, he saw the face of Cleopatra, siren of the Nile. "She's beautiful," he thought as he walked closer, slowly. "But she's not as pretty as Sasha." Suddenly, Ratchet was struck by some strange anxiety attack (as we have seen in "Truth Revealed"). "It's happening again!" he thought as he stumbled to the floor. "I keep thinking about the girl I love. I can't keep her off my mind. If only I had the chance to tell her over and over again: I love her!"

As Ratchet trembled, Cleopatra quickly stood up from her throne and went over to Ratchet. "What is this thing?" she spoke up. "I demand that you tell me immediately!"

"He is not one of those fiery ones," one of the guards answered. "He is of something different. Perhaps he can tell us."

"What are you?" Cleopatra asked Ratchet. "Why do you tremble? Answer me! Identify yourself to my satisfaction!"

As Ratchet struggled to get back up to his feet, he finally said his name. "I am Ratchet, son of Kaden," he said. "I am here to help defend your city from the creatures of the Underworld. If you would just let me help you…"

"So you are a hero of your country?" Cleopatra continued.

"I'll try my best," Ratchet replied. "I'll do what I can do to save your city."

"Very well then. You will follow me." Cleopatra led Ratchet upstairs to the highest balcony of the temple. "Nothing must distract from the tide of this battle! I know just what you should do." She placed Ratchet at where a bow would be placed for its arrow to fire through a small and narrow window. "Use all you've got against those strange creatures. Do it for the sake of Egypt."

After Cleopatra left, Ratchet was all alone to pull something very surprising. "Poor Cleopatra," he thought to himself as he pulled something out of his pockets. "She does not realize that thousands of years from now, advanced technology is as good a weapon against powerful forces. All I need do is pour a few explosive chemicals in my miniature laser-gun and let it scare those creatures away."

After Ratchet put the chemicals in his gun, he aimed the gun outside to fire at the Underworld creatures. He looked at his built-in radar to see that the creatures were scattered all over the area. "Those infernal creatures affect my reading!" he thought as he struggled to place his gun exactly in the middle of the window. "Just one final adjustment is all it needs. The chemicals' potency is increasing by the second. It will soon be ready."

While Ratchet prepared to fire his gun, Cleopatra impatiently waited on her throne room. "Why isn't the furry one doing anything?!" she wondered. "He promised us that we will be safe from those fiery creatures. Why hasn't he fired his bow yet?"

Back on the balcony, Ratchet was ready to finally fire from his trusty gun. "Now it's activated!" he thought aloud as he began to pull the trigger. "Time for these demons to feel the real might of fire!" He fired his gun, and so it happened. A giant laser bolt spread all over the land, pushing the creatures away from Egypt and back into the mysterious depths of the Underworld below. "Wow!" Ratchet exclaimed in triumph. "I did it! My trusty little gun worked! Now Cleopatra is safe!"

Below on the sands of Egypt, Mr. Ash's anger grew as he yelled at his fellow creatures. "Come back, you mindless jackals!" he shouted. "He is alone! He can be defeated! We must not give up! Come back!" But it was too late; all the Underworld creatures that he had summoned ran off back into their world below. "I'm not through with you yet!" Mr. Ash continued as he stormed towards the temple. "I'll still have my hands on him!"

As he marched towards the temple, he was met by the two guards that met Ratchet at first. "Halt!" the first guard said. "Halt and be recognized!"

"Stand aside!" Mr. Ash barked as he pressed his palm against the guard's face. Using his power, he burned the guard's face until it was terribly charred. "You show remarkable coolness under fire," Mr. Ash taunted as he went on to the throne-room. The other guard did not chase after him because he was more worried about his friend. "Ratchet!" Mr. Ash shouted. "Show yourself! You cannot stop my powerful forces! You cannot stop the Underworld!"

Ratchet ran back downstairs to Cleopatra's throne-room, where a frightened queen staggered back from Mr. Ash. "No one may take her life!" Ratchet said as he drew out his Omniwrench. "Now while I live!"

"Ha!" Mr. Ash taunted. "Like you will ever survive THIS little trick! Observe! With a touch of my fiery-hot palm, this brick becomes a lethal weapon!" He plucked a nearby loose brick out of the wall, touched it with his fiery hand, and threw it at Ratchet.

But Ratchet was swift enough to knock the brick back at his opponent by swinging his Omniwrench at the exact precise timing. The brick crumbled into little chunks of molten rubble. "You're gonna have to do better than that!" Ratchet said as he threw his Omniwrench at Mr. Ash's face. It grabbed his head, pinching it and squeezing it really hard.

"Get this thing off me!" Mr. Ash said as he wrenched the Omniwrench away from his face and threw it back at Ratchet. "You've gotten lucky this time! You've already knocked the fight out of me. You may have won the day, Ratchet! But I'll always be back for more! And it will be better than last time!" With that, Mr. Ash suddenly vanished into thin air, transporting himself back to the depths of the Underworld.

Cleopatra smiled at how brave Ratchet was at this battle. "You were wonderful!" she said happily. "I knew you could be trusted!"

"I'm glad that you know that I am not your enemy," Ratchet replied.

"Please remain here and live as my personal bodyguard!"

"I cannot. I must move forward through time so that I may reach my heart's desire. Farewell, Cleopatra! You were great… but my girlfriend will always be better." With that, Ratchet fast-forwarded through time again, going to reach whatever would come to him soon.

**NEXT TIME: RATCHET MEETS THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE AS THEY GO ON THEIR QUEST TO FIND THE HOLY GRAIL!**


	6. Knight's Tale

PlayStation All-Stars: Knight's Quest

By Cole Bezotte

Sequel to "Deeper into Time"

After Ratchet fast-forwarded through a big chunk of time, he finally found himself in a village. He looked at his self-clock and gasped after reading what year he was now in: 503 A.D. "Wow!" Ratchet thought to himself (for the third time in this series). "Now I'm in medieval times! I'm here in England!"

Yes, Ratchet may be surprised at his time travel as he gets closer and closer to changing the past. But there is still one man who wants to stop him. Indeed, Ratchet is foremost in the demeanor of Mr. Ash. Ash is hungry for revenge, wanting to destroy Ratchet once and for all, and to take back the ten powerful Rings forged by the creatures of the Underworld.

"I must have revenge on that Lombax!" Mr. Ash thought as he secretly walked through the village, not seen by Ratchet's curious eyes. "And I shall not rest until it is mine! I shall find out where he is by forming a small cloud of smoke. As the smoke slowly rises, I concentrate on my victim. Ratchet… Ratchet… Ratchet…" After concentrating, he sees a vision of Ratchet in the smoke. "He appears. I see that he is somewhere in this village, unseen by me. I must go find him."

While Mr. Ash went off to search for Ratchet, we find our Lombax wandering through the village, finding a way out. "This place is crowded," he thought quietly. "People are already looking at me. They're a bit frightened. I must prove my innocence."

Suddenly, a famous figure appears, riding on a horse. "You there!" the man called out. "State thy name!"

Ratchet heard the man's voice and walked over to him. "I am Ratchet, son of Kaden, and warrior of time," he said. "I desire nothing but to serve you for a while. You're the only person here who doesn't see me as an ogre."

"Thou would believe me if I told you…" the man replied, "…thou look too soft to be an ogre. Too kind. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Arthur, king of the Britain, and leader of the Knights of the Round Table."

"I thought you were merely an old wife's tale," Ratchet said. "But now it's true enough as proof."

"I thank thee very much, Ratchet. Tell me: art thou a cunning fighter?"

"Indeed I am. I do very well with…" Ratchet stopped himself for a moment. He did not want to say anything about the advanced technology that he uses. He did not want to say anything about it in front of King Arthur, who stood before him. He did not want to confuse him with modern technology. "I am great with crossbows and swords."

"If thou are, where is thy armor?" Arthur questioned.

Ratchet had to think of a lie in order to "hide awkwardness." "I was robbed by a man named James Ash. He took my weaponry and armor, leaving me helpless. He's just as powerful as ever."

"If that is so, then perhaps I shall do one thing. Kneel before me," the king commanded. Ratchet knelt before him, then felt something touch his shoulder. "I now dub thee as one of us! Thou are now a knight of the Round Table!"

While Arthur said all this, two other knights came to the scene. Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad came and watched as King Arthur dubbed Ratchet as knight. "That must be the creature that came to this village," Lancelot spoke up. "Welcome, boy! The world will always have need of men like thee."

"So say we all!" Arthur exclaimed.

"Thy place is with us!" Galahad came in.

"Rise, Ratchet! Take thy place among… the Knights of the Round Table!"

And so, Ratchet the Lombax became a knight to fight for right and freedom!

As the whole scene unfolded, Mr. Ash watched from behind. He became very angry when he saw what had happened. "That fool!" he thought. "He thinks he can defeat me while in knighthood! Well, we'll see about that!"

Later that week, the knights set out to find the one relic known as the Holy Grail. According to legend, there was a nun who believed she received a vision of the Holy Grail. She shared this vision with the knights of King Arthur's Round Table. Believing the Holy Grail held special powers, the knights made it their mission to find it. This started what became known as "the quest for the Holy Grail." Supposedly, whoever found it would receive eternal life.

The knights set out. After a few days had gone by, they were all tired of walking slowly to catch up with each other. And so, they split up, each knight traveling through a different part of the forest.

Sir Lancelot searched in a swamp, thinking that it would be a secret trail to where the Grail is. But he soon received a message that a stubborn boy was "locked in a tower," and so he went to save him, only to be ruining wedding preparations at the same time. It turns out that the "stubborn boy" was none other than Mr. Ash's colleague Black. Things became very bizarre for Lancelot, and so he did not find the Grail.

Sir Galahad traveled through his section of the forest, only to be met by massacred knights' corpses either lying around on the ground or stabbed to the trees. He met Mr. Ash's other slave Minion there, and so they struck up a battle. Minion was strong with his brutal strength, but Galahad defended himself with his chivalry in knighthood. After knocking Minion down to the ground and leaving him for dead, Galahad passed on. He was not successful in finding the Grail either.

Ratchet looked through his area of the forest, finding it very difficult to look through the thick and heavy fog that coated it all. He did not find the Grail, but he did find an all-too-familiar figure standing off in the distance. "We meet again, Ratchet!" the figure spoke up.

"Mr. Ash!" Ratchet said as he pulled something out from the sheath on his belt. "So you decided to follow me!"

"Indeed I did! My two trusty men have probably found your partners by now. Now I have you for myself. Prepare to die! You'll never find that Grail! Even if you have hopes of gaining eternal life, you will never find it!"

"Don't count on it, buster!" Ratchet said as he showed Mr. Ash his new weapon. "See this sword? King Arthur made it for me. I will use this to fight evil for what's right! I even have my new suit of armor to protect me. You can't pierce this thing!"

"Maybe I can!" Mr. Ash said as he ripped a big chunk of bark from a nearby tree that he stood next to. With the power of his fiery hand, he set the piece of bark ablaze, now using it as a lethal weapon. "This is for the Underworld!" With that, he swung the bark hard at Ratchet trying to cut his head off.

But Ratchet was swift enough to raise his new shield and deflect Mr. Ash's blow. "You're not fighting a beginner, mister!" he said as he pushed the shield against his opponent, knocking him down to the floor.

As Mr. Ash got back up to his feet, he said: "You may have beaten me in boxing, but you will certainly not beat me THIS time!" He hurled the fiery bark at Ratchet hoping to impale him right in the face.

Ratchet raised his shield back up again, deflecting the bark and sending it back to its user. Mr. Ash grabbed a tight hold of the bark and charged right at Ratchet, locking himself in head-to-head combat. Using his new sword, Ratchet swung high and hard at Mr. Ash, who constantly used his fire to confuse him. "Stand still, blast you!" Ratchet exclaimed as he kept on swinging.

"Ha!" Mr. Ash taunted. "You're not even trying!" He soon engulfed his entire body in molten fire and lava, burning whatever was near him. "I'll find some way to take you down, Ratchet! Even if I have to burn this whole forest down! I'll kill you here and now!"

The fight continued on as the two warriors clashed forces against each other, trying to gain the upper hand. It was every man for himself now as Mr. Ash breathed fire out of this mouth, trying to scorch Ratchet. But Ratchet's trusty shield kept him protected as he ducked and rolled out the way of the fiery breath.

After Ratchet got most of the fight knocked out of him, Mr. Ash walked over to him and smiled evilly. "Look at you!" Ash taunted. "You are now Sir Ratchet! You are now a knight of the Round Table… of King Arthur himself! And yet, you look so pitiful now! What are you going to do about it now? Any last words before I smash you to nothingness?"

Ratchet looked up and smiled, thinking about a plan that would certainly not fail him. It would turn the tide of the battle and let him win.

"You have surely gone mad," Mr. Ash said as he saw Ratchet smile. "Have you gotten completely insane?! You're hopeless! Let's finish this!"

But no sooner of a word spoken, he was suddenly launched into the air by something powerful. Ratchet got back up to his feet and saw that his new horse had kicked Mr. Ash into the air. Once Ash landed back down to the ground, he saw Ratchet mounting onto his horse. "Impossible…" he muttered as he observed Ratchet riding away and out of the forest. "You'll never hide from me forever, Ratchet! I shall take you down! I shall slaughter you! Do you hear me, Ratchet?! I shall become all-powerful! I shall rule the world!"

Later, Ratchet reunited with King Arthur, who was waiting for his fellow knights to arrive with the good news. Ratchet fully approached him and said: "Sorry I couldn't find it. I ran into some trouble along the way."

"Then where art the others?" Arthur asked.

Right then, Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad arrived, battle-worn and telling of their failure. "So," Arthur continued after their reports, "the rest of thee were as unsuccessful as I, in our all-day search."

"Yes," Lancelot replied. "I had a fruitless search. How about thee, Sir Ratchet? Did everything go alright?"

"Sure," Ratchet said. "But I did not find it. At least I put up a great battle against an old enemy of mine."

"Thou have improved fully," Galahad came in. "A great battle put a sparkle in thy eyes."

"Yep. I think I'm my old self again."

King Arthur stepped in and interrupted. "We shall talk about this later, gentlemen. For now, we must pass on with our quest. We should be much closer to the Holy Grail by now. Come on! Let us keep searching!"

The quest continued. The Knights of the Round Table continued on their quest to find this sacred relic.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ash reunited with his two comrades Minion and Black, who had been defeated by the knights that went on their journey. "You should have warned us about those guys!" Minion complained as he threatened his master with his gigantic fist.

"You dare raise your fist at me?!" Mr. Ash barked.

"Forgive me, master," Minion muttered as he put his fist down. "I got carried away there."

Out of his very thin patience, Mr. Ash touched Minion on the chest, giving him a painful sting there. "Silence!" he said. "Have you lost humility?!" Minion was momentarily stunned by Mr. Ash's mighty power blasts. "I have had enough of this!" Mr. Ash continued as he settled down his hand. "Black here is left powerless without the Rings, and yet he is not complaining. So why don't you show some respect to your master?"

Mr. Ash led his two companions out of the forest and throughout the land. "Come! Let us follow their trail! I know where it leads. And when we arrive there, I need Black to do something very special."

Much later, the knights arrived at a part of the mountains. As they came down from the mountain, they spotted a bridge hovering over a trench filled with lava, with Black standing at the entrance. Ratchet and Sir Lancelot quickly recognized him as they approached even closer to the bridge.

"Black!" Ratchet said as he pointed towards the bridge's guard. "So HE'S the guard, eh? Well, we'll see about that!"

"Thou knows the name of this strange creature?" Lancelot asked.

"Of course. He works alongside with James Ash. We have got to get rid of him."

When Lancelot fully approached the bridge, Black stopped them in his tracks. "STOP!" he commanded. "NO ONE MAY PASS THROUGH UNTIL THREE QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED! DOWN BELOW IS THE PIT TO THE UNDERWORLD! YOU SHALL FALL DOWN INTO THERE IF YOU ANSWER A QUESTION INCORRECTLY!"

"On with the questions," Lancelot replied. "I am not afraid!"

"WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" Black asked as the first question.

"Lancelot."

"WHAT IS YOUR QUEST?"

"I seek the Holy Grail."

"WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?"

"Blue."

"QUITE! OFF YOU GO!" Black motioned Lancelot to cross the bridge safely.

Down below in the Underworld, Mr. Ash watched as Lancelot made his way to the other side of the mountain. "He may be lucky and have crossed safely," he thought to himself, "but he won't be safe for long! I hope Ratchet fails to answer the three questions."

Sir Galahad stepped forward and answered the three questions.

Black asked him: "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

"Sir Galahad of Camelot," the knight replied.

"WHAT IS YOUR QUEST?"

"I seek the Holy Grail too."

"WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?"

"Blue." Galahad said that at first, but then changed his mind. "No! Yellow!" he exclaimed, correcting the situation. But it was too late; he was right then launched into the air, then came back down into the Underworld below.

But Ratchet was very quick; quick enough to save him. He used the power of the ten Rings that he secretly wore on his fingers and levitated Galahad out of the Underworld and onto the other side of the mountain, joining with Lancelot.

Down below, Mr. Ash grew angry when seeing the whole scene unfold right before his eyes. "That fool!" he thought. "He's using my Rings to save him! I should have killed him when I had the chance!"

Right then, King Arthur came with Ratchet, answering the three questions that Black asked them.

"WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" Black asked.

"I am Arthur, king of the Britain."

"WHAT IS YOUR QUEST?"

"I seek the Grail too."

"WHAT IS THE MASTER'S NAME?"

Ratchet stepped forward to stop Black from his little game. "I know your tricks!" he said. "You can't hide them! I know exactly what the answer is, but I will not speak of it. I don't want the world to be on the verge of panic."

"WELL THEN…" Black replied, holing up an axe, "…YOU ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED!"

When Black lowered the axe to chop Ratchet in half, Ratchet swiftly held up his shield to bounce it off. The deflection put Black off-balance, causing him to slip and tumble into the Underworld below, where he was born. After Black landed, Minion's impatience grew. "The surface men are counterattacking!" he spoke up. "I warned you they would strike back!"

Mr. Ash was not troubled by this. "Our might is greater than theirs!" he said. "The sooner the battle begins, the sooner all of Earth will be ours! The time has come! Attack!"

Soon, more Underworld creatures came climbing out of the trench and onto both sides of the mountain, blocking the way of the knights on their quest. "The Underworld creatures!" Ratchet said as he drew out his sword. "It is as I had predicted!"

Some of the creatures approached Lancelot, who turned around and noticed them. The creatures commanded to attack him. "A surface man!" they said. "Destroy him!"

"That will be easier said than done," Lancelot replied as he leaped over something. The creatures laid fire on the ground, trying to burn Lancelot from his feet to the rest of his armored body. But he was agile enough to leap over the fire and onto the solid ground. He then threw his mighty shield and caught some of the creatures off-balance.

"Stay back!" another one of the creatures said as Lancelot retrieved his shield. "There is more to his strength than meets the eye!"

Mr. Ash came to the surface, then started shouting at his comrades for their failure. "Mindless, brainless, and useless creatures!" he exclaimed in anger. "I ought to tan your hides!"

Meanwhile, Ratchet saw a tower off in the distance. He began to think of what clues this can possibly lead to. "Can that be it?" he thought, wondering if his quest had ended. "Can that tower be what's possibly holding the Holy Grail? Maybe I can get close enough to it. I must get there!"

But before he could take a step forward, Ratchet suddenly saw a big wad of fire coming right at him. "You cannot escape me this time!" Mr. Ash said as he stepped closer with his fire. "You have not won yet! You won't get away with the Rings! I must have them! They're mine!"

Ratchet could not take this anymore. Mr. Ash was pounding him over and over again with his fiery fist, with Ratchet holding up his shield for protection. "I can't use my sword anymore," he thought as he closed his eyes in fear. "I have no choice but to leave this time zone and get out of here!"

And so, Ratchet used the power of the ten Rings to transport him to a different time period. Who knows where he went next? We shall see another time.

**NEXT TIME: A HUMUNGOUS TIME LEAP OCCURS, AS RATCHET FINDS HIMSESLF IN AN OLD-TIME SCENE.**


	7. The Good, the Bad, and the Twisted

PlayStation All-Stars: The Good, the Bad, and the Twisted

By Cole Bezotte

Sequel to: "Knight's Tale"

**Note: in case you are wondering, "the Good" is Ratchet, "the Bad" is Mr. Ash, and "the Twisted" is Calypso/William Sparks.**

When Ratchet woke up, he found himself in a small shaking and rocking room. He felt very odd as he looked around himself. "Why do I feel so lightweight?" he thought to himself. "My knight armor must have disappeared. I have traveled through time again. I must find out what year I am in now."

But before he could, Ratchet found that he was actually in the boxcar of a passing train. The boxcar's door was slid wide open, allowing Ratchet to see where he was at the time. He saw that the train was approaching a dry and dusty town. He needed a place to stay, where he can eat and change. "I need some water…" Ratchet thought, "…and fast."

But the train did not stop. Apparently, it was not heading for that particular time. Ratchet took desperate measures to leap out of the train and onto the dirty ground next to the train tracks. Once he got back up, the train fully passed by him, leaving him on his own out in the open of this town. He checked his self-clock and read what year he was in: A.D. 1866.

"This is the biggest time leap I've ever been through!" Ratchet thought as he looked around him. "I'm in an old western town. Looks like I'll be living the cowboy days. Although, I'll try to act tough so that everyone doesn't laugh at my REAL attitude."

As Ratchet walked through the town, he saw a tumbleweed bounce past him. "These things are a bit scarier than I thought it would be," he thought as the tumbleweed passed by. "But now I'm starting to find this place more interesting now. I'd love to live a few days here. But that would waste time on my mission. I still need to change some certain things in the past. I'm getting closer and closer to William Sparks' time. I need to get there just in time to save his younger sister."

Later, he came across a bar where cowboys were drinking, smoking, and playing poker. He slowly walked in so that no one would immediately see him as a freak that just walked into the world. Everyone did look at him, only to see how strange-looking of a creature he was. Even the piano player stopped for a brief moment to look at him. "Yer not from around here, are ya?" the player spoke up and asked, in his western accent.

"N-no," Ratchet replied nervously.

"Knew it! You ain't got the accent we all share. What does that make out 'a ya?"

"I'm in trouble here, am I?" Ratchet looked around and saw that tons of pairs of eyeballs were pointed his way, facing his direction and looking at him in suspicion. "I guess I am," Ratchet thought as he tried to back away.

"Hold it, son!" one man said before Ratchet could move a muscle. "You ain't goin' anywhere."

"Thank goodness," Ratchet replied as he found where the voice came from. It was a man sitting in the corner of the room, his hat covering half his heavily mustached face. He was not at any table like all the other cowboys that were there. There was no one else with him, so he was all alone, talking with Ratchet.

"I certainly hope ya don't run along scared after hearin' this," the man continued. "There's a tall guy out there wearin' a purple suit and an evil face. He told me all 'bout ya. He threatened us by tellin' that if you don't show yer face fer a showdown, he'll blow the whole dang town up! I'm tellin' ya, ya gotta fight this guy."

Understanding what the man said, Ratchet finally knew what he was talking about. "Sounds like…" Ratchet said slowly, "…Mr. Ash! He's back again!"

"Ya know that critter?" the man asked.

"Of course!" Ratchet replied. "I know him! He's been following me all this time, and he needs to be stopped!"

"Well said, little brave critter. The name's Jeff by the way. I can help ya on this particular deal."

"Thanks, Jeff. I can count on you," Ratchet said, shaking Jeff's hands.

"Do ya do well with shootin'?" Jeff asked.

"Yes. I do excellent shooting with… guns." Ratchet did not want to say "blasters" because he would confuse those who do not know the future.

"Pistols? Is that it?" Jeff asked.

"No, more than just that. I also use the big rifles, and I mostly swing a nifty weapon of mine. I call it the Omniwrench."

"Wrench, eh? Let me see it."

"Certainly," Ratchet said as he pulled his Omniwrench from out of his pocket.

Jeff was very surprised when Ratchet pulled the Omniwrench from out of his pocket, because Ratchet's pants were created by Dr. Nefarious. Nefarious created the pockets to specifically be bigger on the inside so that Ratchet can store many big things in there. "What the heck?!" Jeff exclaimed, surprised. "How the heck did ya do that?"

"Uh…" Ratchet started, trying to think up a good lie, "…I am also good at magic tricks."

"Very good, sonny. Anywho, I think a good shootin' practice ought to do mighty fine. Let's get out there and do a little somethin' very good."

Jeff led Ratchet outside to his place, which was not far from the bar. There, Jeff took out his trusty pistol and handed it to Ratchet, letting him practice shooting with it. They then went back outside to the back of the house, where a lonely log stood in the middle of the dusty yard. Jeff set a few rusty old cans on the log for Ratchet to practice shooting at them. Ratchet did excellent, combining his shooting skills together with his gymnastic skills. As he practiced throughout the rest of the morning, he thought to himself: "I didn't buy that gymnasium for nothing. Before I reset all of time, I bought that gymnasium for us League of Heroes to train at. Although, I have to get a hang on using the average American pistol other than using the alien laser-guns."

After many hours of practicing, Ratchet was tired from doing all those wild stunts with his gun. Jeff applauded him after the practice was over. "Well done!" he cheered. "Ya did mighty fine there, sonny jim! But ya look worn out there. How 'bout we come inside and have a nice lunch. I can get ya all the water ya need."

"That… would be… amazing…" Ratchet replied, exhausted from the exercise he had just pulled. He went inside the house with Jeff and had a good lunch to satisfy his hunger.

As the two of them ate together, Jeff spoke up to start a conversation: "Somethin' tells me yer a fine fighter. Have ya been fightin' in other places other than this?"

"Yes," Ratchet replied. "I have fought in other places other than here. I one time fought a mysterious masked man who wanted to sell his prisoners and get lots of money from it. I tried to stop him from doing that, and so we put up a real big fight. He may have won, but that didn't stop me. I learned my lesson of drinking from a heavy drug that wore me down for a while. I was later captured and put in one of his prison rooms, but I was held only for a short time. I managed to get out of there, thanks to a friend of mine, and so that proved to the masked man that no one can stop freedom." There, Ratchet told of his adventure through our very first story "May Freedom Reign."

"I see…" Jeff said. "Yer a pretty inspired man, I must say. It shows that ya won't give up for anything. Ya won't give in to that Ash character. Ya never give up."

"Exactly. Thanks, Jeff. I had a most energetic morning."

"So, Ratchet, ya think yer ready to face that dang guy?"

"I don't know," Ratchet replied, beginning to feel doubtful. "I've never done anything like this. I've only succeeded in fighting evil armies that threatened to destroy the world. As for defeating one lone powerful man, it's new to me."

"Aw, don't be doubtful 'bout it," Jeff encouraged. "I told ya, we never give up. This land needs freedom from that mysterious monarch, and we all need ya. I'm countin' on ya, kid! In fact, just to prove it, we're makin' a deal with ya: if ya get rid of that dang gangster, we will make ya sheriff of the town itself! How 'bout that?"

"It sounds pretty convincing," Ratchet said, going along with Jeff's idea. "I'll take it!"

"Good boy! I can't wait to see ya shine!"

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the town, Mr. Ash came riding into town on a black horse. He was his normal self again, looking like a human, but now wearing a white cowboy hat and smoking a cigar. He came down from his horse and looked deep into the quiet town. "They won't know what hit them," he spoke up to his horse. "This will be Ratchet's end, I know it! I'll smother him across the ground once he's dead! He'll never succeed at this! He may have beaten me yesterday at that forest back in medieval times, but he won't win this time!"

"IT WILL BE AN HONOR TO SEE YOU WIN AT LAST!" the horse spoke and replied. The horse was actually Black, who used his transformation power to take the form of a horse.

"But before I can go on," Mr. Ash interrupted, "I must tell you one more thing: if I do not make it out of this alive, you will take my place at the throne of the Underworld. You shall be the new ruler, having every Underworld creature obey your every whim. But watch out for Minion; he might take revenge on me not being so grateful about him. Make sure to have him eliminated before taking the throne."

"OF COURSE MASTER! I WILL NOT FAIL YOU!"

"Good! Now off you go! I shall enter this town alone." With that, Mr. Ash walked into the town, his gun ready for combat, and his strength as good as ever. This would surely be a great victory for the ruler of the Underworld… or so he thinks.

Later, Ratchet was given a cowboy uniform to dress in for the battle. Even a cool hat was given to him so that the sun does not distract him during this showdown. After getting ready, with his new pistol in his belt's holster, Ratchet saw that Jeff was surprised to see that Mr. Ash had come sooner than he thought. "There he is!" Jeff exclaimed. "This is it! This is yer moment to shine, buddy! Ya gotta get out there and give 'im what for! Now get out there and get 'im!"

"Right!" Ratchet replied as he stepped out the door. "I'll show him that…" But he stopped himself right there. He began to think deeply about what he was about to do. "Is it right?" he thought to himself as he took off his hat for a moment. "Is it right to for me to kill someone? I don't want it to be like what happened when Needles was in my head, controlling me to murder people. I don't want it to be like what happened when that potion William gave me transformed me into an uncontrollable monster."

"Ratchet!" Ratchet heard Jeff say to him. "What the heck are ya doin'?! Why are ya stoppin'? That guy is still out there, waitin' for ya! And we won't get freedom in this town if ya don't defeat 'im! Come on, man! Put back on yer hat and go get 'im! We can't let that guy run loose around here!"

"You're right!" Ratchet said as he manned up to put his hat back on and step closer into the middle of the dusty town, where his opponent Mr. Ash was waiting.

As Ratchet came closer in, Jeff called for everyone to move out of the way of the road. "Clear the streets!" he shouted for everyone to hear. "This is Ratchet's job! Don't get in his way! Let 'im do this!" The town's people obeyed him and hid in any spot near the buildings, where they would not interfere with this battle.

Ratchet and Mr. Ash now came face-to-face with each other, ready to end each other in gun combat. "You!" Ratchet called out to Mr. Ash. "Come closer! You have a date with me!"

"Disgusting!" Mr. Ash replied grumpily. "This will be your finish… for good! Let us settle this here and now! Let us see who is really the fastest gun in the west!"

There. The two men, Ratchet and Mister James Ash, stood face-to-face with each other, ready to end each other in this small battle. Their guns were held steady in their belts' holsters. The townspeople hid where they could not step foot on the dusty road and interfere. Ratchet and Mr. Ash exchanged looks at each other from underneath their cowboy hats. They were certainly ready to end this here and now. They were ready.

Mr. Ash was quick enough to be the first one to draw out his gun. "Ha!" he taunted as he pointed the pistol at Ratchet, about to shoot. "You lose!" But he hesitated to shoot; he wanted to see what Ratchet would do first.

Ratchet made his move, drawing out his gun. Mr. Ash shot, but he missed Ratchet. It turns out Ratchet was not firing at all; instead, he was pulling stunts and tricks with his gun, easily confusing his opponent. Mr. Ash did not know what to do, seeing Ratchet pull those "ridiculous moves."

But then, it happened. After Ratchet was done with those moves, he quickly fired at Mr. Ash, shooting him in the chest once. Ash was hit heavily. He came down to the ground, his life ending then and there. Ratchet went over to him and watched him die on the spot. "You fool!" Mr. Ash said as his last words, dying away. "You wish to kill me… but why did you not think about your family… your friends… they died because of your carelessness… and your raving mad mind…"

Ratchet slowly replied with: "And so I avenged it…"

"No… You fool…" With that, Mr. Ash died right there in front of Ratchet. Ratchet came closer to Ash's dead corpse and began to weep… because of this!

"He would not have died in vain," Ratchet thought as he stared deep into Ash's face and closed eyes. "I did not want it to end like what happened to my friends. I can't let anyone die anymore! I'm sorry! Heaven help me! Heaven help them all! But suddenly… I feel as if… it HAD to end this way."

Just then, Ratchet heard the whole town cheer and applaud him of his success. "Great job, Ratchet!" Jeff exclaimed as he pinned the sheriff badge on Ratchet's cowboy vest. "Ya saved us! Ya saved us all! Ya saved the whole town! Yer now one of us! Yer now the sheriff of the town!"

But right then, Ratchet got up and ran right out of the town, running away from whom thanked him for this victory. "What the heck is he doin'?!" Jeff exclaimed. "Why is he runnin' away? I told him not to worry about anything! But instead, he's actin' like a total wimp!"

Ratchet reached the main entrance of the town, then cringed down to his knees in sadness. "I can't go on like this!" he thought as he cried. "I can't think of this anymore! It always keeps reminding me of the dearest friends that I have lost: Sasha! Pupuru! My father! Everybody! I don't want to be reminded anymore!"

Suddenly, as he knelt there, a heavy dusty wind gushed over him, entering into the town behind him. "Better get inside, y'all!" Ratchet heard Jeff shout at a distance behind him. "There's a huge wind comin'! An' I don't know why Ratchet ain't gettin' over here!"

After the wind was done passing over him, Ratchet opened back up his eyes and looked behind him. He was now in Cyburbia, somewhere in Los Angeles, California. He looked at his self-clock to read what year it was, but the signal was damaged from the sand that slipped through there. "I must be somewhere near William's childhood," Ratchet thought as he took off his cowboy uniform. "I've got to reach his house fast!"

And so, he headed for the house in which William Sparks used to live during his childhood. And find it he did. He found William's little sister sitting at the end of her father's car, playing with her doll. Then, Ratchet saw William, at the age of twelve, heading to the car and getting inside. "Wait!" Ratchet exclaimed, trying to stop William from doing so. "Don't do it!" Ratchet knew that William had accidentally killed his younger sister by running her over with the car, and so he was trying to stop it from happening.

William started the ignition of the car and began to back out of the driveway. Ratchet dived right into there and snatched the sister from out of there. William was able to drive out of the driveway fully without running over his sister and putting her to sudden death. He looked and saw what happened right there, and saw Ratchet placing the sister to a safe spot in the yard. When Ratchet saw that William was looking right at him, he turned and ran off throughout the neighborhood.

William's sister turned and saw Ratchet running away. She said to her brother William: "That animal… he saved me!"

As Ratchet ran farther through the neighborhood, and through time, he thought to himself: "So far, so good! I just need to reach the time when William is about to accidentally kill his daughter Krista in that car crash. Then, it will be over for William's evil side! He'll be good forever!"

**NEXT TIME: ALL OF TIME UNFOLDS AS RATCHET MAKES HIS WAY TO CALYPSO!**


	8. Time Unfolds

PlayStation All-Stars: Time Unfolds

By Cole Bezotte

Journal entry by Ratchet: "This is it! This is the moment that I've been waiting for! Time for me to change all of time! Time for me to make things better! No one's gonna die now! No one!"

Ratchet read what year he was in while looking at his self-clock. The year was read: A.D. 1995. "This is it!" Ratchet thought as he looked for the certain location where William Sparks was taking his daughter Krista driving. "I have to find that one location! It can't be far from here!"

And so, he set off to find that particular location. And find it he did. He found the one place where William was taking Krista driving. Krista had fallen asleep right there, and so after a while, William completely forgot all about her still being in the backseat. He wanted to drive right into the brick wall that was right in front of him. And so, he drove at full speed right at it, trying to crash right there and kill himself. He wanted to unite with his wife Joanne and live with her in the Underworld, where some of the unfaithful dead were brought.

But suddenly, right when William was about to make the crash, Krista woke up and was startled to see William about to crash right into the wall. "Daddy?" Krista spoke up.

Before William could crash, he suddenly felt that he ran into something different. He looked out his window and saw that Ratchet had stuck his Omniwrench's handle into the wall, allowing the wrench's head to be a bump that stopped the car. William got out of the car and looked at the Omniwrench that stopped his crash. "What a ruin of a plan," he thought to himself as he tried to pull the wrench form the wall.

"Stop!" William heard a voice speak behind him. He turned around and saw Ratchet coming towards him. "You mustn't kill yourself!" Ratchet continued. "You'll kill your daughter as well!"

"Wait a minute!" William said as he stared deep into Ratchet's face. "I've seen you before… somewhere during my childhood… you stopped me from killing my younger sister! How are you still alive today after all these years?" Suddenly, before William can do anything else, he looked at himself mysteriously grow a few years older. Now that he had met Ratchet, he was now his modern form, now remembering what had just transpired. "Ratchet!" William said as he saw the Rings on Ratchet's fingers. "You did it! You stopped me from killing my family! You did it, Ratchet! Thank you!"

"Everything is falling into place for us, isn't it?" Ratchet replied. "Although, I feel as if my mission was a total bust."

"What do you mean? You fixed things, didn't you?"

"I did, but I killed someone along the way. I killed Mr. Ash. He's dead now. I committed such an unnecessary murder, and I'm sorry I did it."

"Why are you worried about it? It HAD to end that way. Otherwise, if you did not kill him, then the death of some of your closest friends would not be avenged at all. It would mean that your adventure would not yet be complete. You HAD to do it, Ratchet. You did it to save all of us."

"Thank you, William. Come on! We should be getting closer to the year 2015." But suddenly, before he could make a move, Ratchet felt something pound in his chest heavily. He felt that, inside of him, he began to feel like a normal life-form.

"By Jove!" William exclaimed, surprised. "You're actually flesh-and-blood now! You're alive again! You're no longer a cyborg like you once were!" (As shown in "Return of the Reaper" and "Madness of the Machine") "Your heart beats, you can breathe again, you have feelings again!"

"Somehow…" Ratchet replied, "…I feel happy again! I feel so… emotional! I'm back! Sasha can love me again!"

"Speaking of which, we have to save her before Needles can kill her again!"

"You're right!" But before going forward, Ratchet continued: "Wait a minute! We don't have to! If you are not evil, then you would not create the Twisted Metal contest anymore. That means that if the contest doesn't exist, then Marcus Kane would not turn evil and live the rest of his life causing destruction. He's okay now!"

"He'll probably start to remember your main mission here. Daniel Grimm would know too."

"Exactly! Now let's go! Let's go and see the good future of the world!"

And so they did. They went to Agent Stone and exposed him of his plan to show Ratchet as a threatening alien. Stone began to realize what happened and was exposed of his plot again. Finally reaching the year A.D. 2015, they then saw Pupuru alive and well, as well as Sasha Phyronix.

Everything began to fall into place for everybody. No more chaos. No more destruction. No more Twisted Metal! Everything became perfect! The League of Heroes reunited, happy to see that the world was under control again, thanks to our hero: Ratchet the Lombax.

But one person in particular was not happy: Minion. He became very angry at Mr. Ash for letting Black be the next in line for the throne of the Underworld, and so now he wants revenge. In so doing, he tied up Black and threw him into the Underworld's asylum. He did the same thing to Gigadis, making sure that even HE does not meddle with the Underworld's laws and decrees.

In the asylum cell where Black and Gigadis were held, the two began to talk about what to do to strike revenge against Minion. "Minion is a fool!" Gigadis said as they went deeper into the conversation. "He does not give anyone respect! He's always acting like the boss!"

"I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MEAN!" Black replied. "BECAUSE OF HIS DEFIANCE, HE SHALL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Sure… We'll teach that guy a lesson! We'll kill him when he's off-guard, I promise you that!"

"WE'LL BE A TEAM FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO DESTROY HIM!"

After they struck the deal, Gigadis began to think about what to do after the plan was carried out. "After we're done with this thing," he thought to himself, "it will be I who will succeed! I shall personally destroy Black after his purpose has been served!"

Meanwhile, in the heart of Los Angeles, Ratchet reunited with Sasha, who was very worried about him. "I'm okay, Sasha! I'm alright! And so are you," Ratchet said as they embraced together. "Although, I still have that strange feeling, as if our mission is not yet complete."

"What do you mean?" Sasha replied.

"First, I'll have to travel through the past and fix a few things so that I'm not in every single history book. Second, Mr. Ash's forces may still be at large. We must be very cautious about it."

Suddenly, on top of a rooftop of a nearby building, Minion appeared and gave the following announcement to the world: "Hear me, mortals! This is your master speaking! I am here to see Ratchet, who has stolen the ten Rings to reset all of time! I want him right here in front of me, here and now!"

Ratchet stepped closer to the building that Minion was standing on top of. He spoke: "What do you want, Minion?!"

"Listen here, Ratchet: I am tired of your mockery to the Underworld! I am tired of what you desire, which would always be over what I want! I will make you this deal, and you better pay close attention: if you surrender the Rings to me, then I will keep you alive, along with everybody else in the world! But if you do not give me the Rings, Ratchet, then I will cause a forever war on this planet Earth until you give those Rings to me! The choice is yours, Ratchet! Choose one or the other!"

Ratchet leaned back and whispered to Sasha: "He's lying about keeping the world alive. Even if I DO give him the Rings, he'll have complete world domination. I'll have to play it MY way." Ratchet came closer to Minion and gave his answer: "We won't surrender! We will stay and fight till the very end!"

Minion sneered at what Ratchet said, and so he replied: "Very well, then! If you will not surrender the Rings to me, then I will destroy you without mercy!"

"Give it all you got! We'll fight you anyway!"

"Fine!"

And so, the world-wide war started. Many creatures from the Underworld, being mixed with groups of little clown minions, came running throughout the surface of the Earth, destroying whatever was in sight. Ratchet and the League of Heroes saw this as an opportunity to fight with more action than ever. They fought on, driving away the enemy and warning them to never come back. For every battle that constantly appeared, the League of Heroes came to the rescue and saved the day.

After a week had gone by, the League of Heroes still gained the upper hand with the many battles they put up. It made Minion very upset and impatient; he wanted the heroes to die sooner. "Enough!" he exclaimed while sitting on the throne of the Underworld. "It is time that I use my powers for something very useful: from this day forth, Ratchet's age shall increase slowly throughout a period of one week. Once that week is over, he will die of old age! What a brilliant idea!"

And so, using the powers that Mr. Ash gave him, he casts his spell over Ratchet causing him to grow older throughout the week. Throughout that week, Sasha began to grow very scared about Ratchet's fate that would soon come to him. "Ratchet!" she said once she found Ratchet walking around with a cane, his face getting more wrinkly, and his fur's color changing to grey. "You have to give Minion those Rings! You can't go on like this! I don't want to lose you!"

"Quiet, lady!" Ratchet barked at her. Because of his old age, his attitude began to change as well. "We won't give up! We'll still fight him no matter what the cost! Although, I'm gonna have to see a chiropractor; my back's aching again."

"Ratchet!" Sasha said again. She leaned on Ratchet's shoulder, becoming more worried than ever about the boy whom she truly and sincerely loved. She began to cry about him, knowing that he will indeed die of old age. "I worry too much about you…" Sasha continued. "Please, Ratchet! You must surrender! You must fix this! You must!"

Ratchet looked down at the floor, not knowing what to say at first. He began to think through his now-slow mind: "I will have to do it… I will have to do it… for her." Ratchet motioned Sasha to come with him out to meet Minion. "Come with me. We are going."

After a short while, Ratchet and Sasha made it to where Minion was, waiting for the tide to turn once and for all. "You!" Ratchet called out to Minion, who was now atop the building from earlier. "Come down!"

"Ah…" Minion replied, looking down at the now-elderly Ratchet. "Look at you! You're now a feeble old man!"

After hearing that, Ratchet began to feel himself weaken a lot more. The week was almost up; it was the last day, and so Ratchet would die of old age. He was eighty-five. "You…" he continued, struggling to speak, "…you may have the Rings back. You can take it all! I am tired of this war that you brought upon us! I'm here to give you what you've been wanting all this time. But… will you give us what WE want?"

"Yes!" Minion exclaimed. "Yes indeed! I'll give you back your world! But first: give me the Rings now!"

But before anyone could do anything, Black and Gigadis came from behind Minion, pointing their guns at him. "Hold it right there, Minion!" Gigadis spoke up. "You're not going anywhere!"

Minion turned around and saw what they were up to. "You two!" he said. "What do you want?!"

"We came here to get what's ours," Gigadis replied. "Now hand over the Rings! WE'LL be in charge of this."

With burning hatred, Minion pushed the two Underworld creatures back, knocking them down to the floor. Minion was still as strong as ever. "Now, Ratchet…" Minion continued, "hand over the Rings now! Do it or I'll increase your age even more!"

Ratchet took the Rings off his fingers and threw them up to Minion. "It's all what I have to do," he whispered to Sasha. "At last we can be together."

"Insolent fool!" Minion thought as he put the Rings on his fingers. "He doesn't even realize what I'm doing! I want to destroy this pitiful planet forever! With the power of these Rings, I command this whole entire planet to be destroyed in one big slam!" With that, Minion slammed his fist onto the rooftop that he was standing on, hoping that it would cause the world to crumble to pieces. But nothing happened.

Ratchet looked back up at Minion and spoke to him: "You tried, Minion! But you failed! It won't work! It definitely won't!"

"What's going on here?" Minion said. "Why isn't anything happening? I must pound harder and see what happens." He hit the floor with both his fists, harder than before. But still, nothing happened. "I've been given great power!" he continued. "Why isn't anything happening? It must explode!"

"The world will not explode, Minion!" Ratchet replied. "You will not succeed in your devious scheme! We won't surrender to anything evil, not even YOU! But, even though we hate what is evil, we must learn to love our enemies!"

"If you say that is true," said Minion, "then you must love ME!"

"And yet, I pity you. Trust me, Minion, your plan won't work! You failed!"

"Explode! Explode! YOU MUST EXPLODE!" But no matter how hard he pounded the floor, he was not successful in his diabolical scheme.

Black and Gigadis watched as Minion failed in his attempt to destroy the world in a "requested" explosion. "The utter fool!" Gigadis said as he watched Minion on the brink of insanity. "He's so helpless! Let's get out of here, Black. He's served his purpose! I'm through with him!"

"That's it!" Minion exclaimed angrily as he raised the Rings into the air. "I'm going to cause another warp explosion, and I'm going to WISH what it's going to be like. I wish that the entire universe, including every alien galaxy, will be destroyed forever! Let it happen now!"

As Minion clamped his hands together, connecting the Rings into proper position, Ratchet watched and made a wish for things to be HIS way. "I wish…" he started. But it was too late; the bright light from the Rings began to blind everybody, engulfing the world into the fifth warp explosion.

And when the light faded…

Ratchet woke up and saw that he was gaining back his youth. His old and worn body began to gain back its youthfulness and correct age. He saw that Minion was dying right in front of him. Minion's life was being taken straight from his body and soul, allowing itself to enter into Ratchet, making Ratchet young again. "I'm back!" Ratchet thought as he looked at himself. "I'm back, and back with the one I love."

As for Black and Gigadis, they too were dying. Their lives were being brought out of their souls, being taken to two other dead beings, giving them new lives. Ratchet saw that they were being taken to the stars, out into the distant galaxy. He began to think for a moment, trying to find out who was being brought back to life. Then, it hit him: his two loving parents.

"They're back!" Ratchet exclaimed happily. "My parents are back alive! I get to meet them again!"

William Sparks and Sasha went over to Ratchet telling them a piece of good news. "Ratchet!" William said, very eager to tell him. "Your planet Fastoon! Your parents are there waiting for you! You must go to them!"

Ratchet knew what this meant. "It's happy that things are what we wanted it to be!" he said. "I knew that Minion was unworthy of using the Rings because I used it to travel through times. The Rings have minds of their own; they began to hate Mr. Ash, and so they found me as a more worthy user. They found that my past was very dark, and so they wanted to help me."

"I knew we can count on you, Ratchet!" William replied.

Later that day, Marcus Kane shook hands with Ratchet and said: "Well, partner, this is good-bye!"

"What do you mean?" Ratchet replied. "Are you planning to leave? Break up the world's greatest fighting team?"

"Hold it, gallant leader! You were going to quit after this last caper, remember?" (As shown in "Return of the Reaper")

"Oh! I guess I did make some such remark. I've been acting careless lately."

"You will stay around a little longer, will you, until we fully learn the ropes?"

"Sure. I'll do it until I've taught you all I can."

"And how long will that take, fella?"

"Well…" Ratchet laughed, "…I'm a very slow teacher. What can I say?"

Much later, Ratchet and the League of Heroes went to Los Angeles' local beach to celebrate their victory. Ratchet and Sasha were the last ones to make it there; they walked along the pathway, talking about what would soon come to our main heroes. "I don't get it, Ratchet," Sasha said as they changed the subject of their conversation. "Aren't you going to your planet anytime soon?"

"I will," Ratchet replied. "Perhaps there is where we can finally be together forever. We will DEFINITELY get married and not have any more slip-ups like those other times. You can count on me for that. But right now, I just want to spend some time with you here. I will miss this planet you know. Although, there is one thing that could go wrong here and now."

"And what could that be?"

"Your uniform is missing a button."

"What?!" Sasha looked down and saw that a button had loosened and popped off her main uniform. She pulled her suit up so that nothing remains loose for her.

"Don't worry," Ratchet continued. "Before long, Clank will place a new button there. At least no one knows, except for me. Now come on. Let's go and change."

Soon, Ratchet and Sasha changed into their swim-suits and went for a nice relaxing swim, savoring the best moment with each other. They swam throughout most of the afternoon, entering into the evening.

Later, after they changed back into their normal uniforms, Ratchet was given something important. It was Mr. Ash's journal, telling of a plan that happened right before our very first story "May Freedom Reign." This is what the journal read:

"I finally knew everything about the Lombax species, and all about Ratchet's life story. And so, I wanted to do something that would really pack a punch. I knew that Ratchet and Talwyn Apogee went through the Dimensionator and entered into the dimension where the remaining Lombaxes were, the ones who escaped from Emperor Percival Tachyon's massacre. Ratchet was desperate to find the rest of his kind. And so, I came up with a quick and easy scheme: I snatched Ratchet out of that dimension and placed him back at the planet Veldin, where he grew up. In so doing, I struck him with a quick case of amnesia so that he won't realize what just transpired. He would think that he never went through the Dimensionator at all, and that he just went back to Veldin with no word said. I gave the same amnesia case to Clank, Doctor Nefarious, and Galactic President Qwark, so that even THEY won't remember what happened there. I thought that my mission was complete, but I was dead wrong. I completely forgot about Talwyn, and so I snatched HER out of the dimension as well, and gave her the amnesia case. I can't wait for the good juicy stuff to begin! Once Talwyn shows up, Sasha will be so jealous, and I will have succeeded!"

**TO BE CONTINUED!**

**So far, we have just read twenty-three stories from my longest-running PlayStation All-Stars series. And from what we have so far…**

**Season One:**

**May Freedom Reign**

**Carnival of Destruction**

**Tough Times**

**Truth Revealed**

**Christmas Hope**

**Endgame**

**Season Two:**

**Terror of the Tombs**

**Ratchet Wanted for Treason**

**Sweet Tooth Reborn**

**Sasha's New Power**

**High Octane**

**Ratchet's Fiery Madness**

**Government Takes Over**

**Boiling Tensions**

**A Beautiful Tale**

**Season Three:**

**Ratchet's Ultimate Fate**

**Return of the Reaper**

**Madness of the Machine**

**Chaos Galore**

**Deeper Into Time**

**Knight's Tale**

**The Good, the Bad, and the Twisted**

**Time Unfolds**

**From what we have, we may have a Season Four, introducing Talwyn Apogee and the return of forgotten villains.**


End file.
